Wreck Bucket List?

[Makhno]

A must do wreck for me is one that tells an epic story. Examples:
Battle of Sunda Strait - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Captain Albert Rooks USS Houston
Captain Hector Waller HMAS Perth


Great and sobering WWII histories about the last stand of these two doomed warships, HMAS Perth and the USS Houston, the last of the ill-fated & short-lived ABDA (American-British-Dutch-Australian) Fleet. The survivors were taken as POW's by the Japanese to work on the most infamous civil engineering project in history --The Thai-Burma Railway and the "Bridge over River Kwai". . .


The allure and fun of wreck diving is not just merely researching the history for academic sake, but actually diving down yourself and vicariously reliving the history as you would imagine how it might've actually happened. . .


HMAS Perth & USS Houston, dive-able in 30m of water, in poor to fair viz at depth with current, but with a compelling heroic story that justifies a visit:
http://www.asiadivers.com/techasia/Java.pdf

Yeah, I did 3 days of diving the Houston and the Perth at the end of this August. I wish I'd had all 6 days of the charter; 3 days wasn't enough.

There aren't a lot of warships which are easily diveable, so those two are special. By warships, I mean ships originally built for combat like heavy cruisers, not cargo ships put into military service or merchant ships bombed or torpedoed during wartime (like Japanese marus, most of the US East Coast wrecks, etc.). On both the Perth and the Houston, we had strong currents and bad viz, but they were nevetheless great wrecks -- very rarely dived, with countless artifacts and other points of interest. Maybe I'll go back next year if I have any money left in my budget after the I dive the HMS Hermes off of Sri Lanka next June.

At the top of my list are the Repulse and the Prince of Wales. It just so happens that the Hermes will probably fit into my work schedule better, so I'll dive it in June, then maybe go back to the Sunda Straits wrecks of the Perth and Houston -- and I'll probably revisit some wrecks at Coron or Subic Bay I've already seen. But to be honest, the Repulse is at the top of my list.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Battleship HMS Prince of Wales & Battlecruiser HMS Repulse were the first two capital ships freely maneuvering at sea to be sunk-in-action by air power alone (note the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor was caught at anchor). Ignominious history of the British Navy's initial hubris & disdain for the capabilities of the Japanese Air Force. Deep and difficult deco dives (63m & 51m respectively), in heavy current & fair to poor viz, and in the busy shipping lanes to the big world port of Singapore. (Gotta be careful & wary about pirates in the area too!)

HMS Hermes is the only dive-able Indo-Pacific WWII Aircraft Carrier to be sunk in action; also deep at 48m with strong current and drifting deco. You gotta be sure the boat skiff & surface crew sees your SMB at your 21m/Eanx50 deco stop, or else your next Indian Ocean land mass after Diego Garcia is Antarctica. . .

And on this Veteran's Day today in the US, let's honor the Merchant Mariners on the Cargo Ships and their service & sacrifice as well (they're the ones who truly won WWII):

Comparison of Merchant Marine casualty rate to other services

How many U.S. Merchant Marine and U.S. Army Transport Service casualties were there in World War II? We may never know the exact count, because the U.S. government never kept accurate records as it did for other services. The best previous accounting has been by Captain Arthur R. Moore, an independent researcher, in his great work, A Careless Word -- a Needless Sinking: A History of the Staggering Losses Suffered by the U.S. Merchant Marine, both in Ships and Personnel, during World War II, American Merchant Marine Museum, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, N.Y., 1983 to 1998. Captain Moore's book lists approx. 990 ships. American Merchant Marine at War - Revolution to World War II to today list includes 1,600 ships.

Service	Number serving	War Dead	Percent	Ratio
Merchant Marine	243,000*	9,521**	3.90%	1 in 26
Marines	669,108	19,733	2.94%	1 in 34
Army	11,268,000	234,874	2.08%	1 in 48
Navy	4,183,466	36,958	0.88%	1 in 114
Coast Guard	242,093	574	0.24%	1 in 421
Total	16,576,667	295,790	1.78%	1 in 56

[SIZE=-1]*Number varies by source and ranges from 215,000 to 285,000. War Shipping Administration Press Release 2514, January 1, 1946, lists 243,000
**Total killed at sea, POW killed, plus died from wounds ashore

http://www.usmm.org/casualty.html[/SIZE]


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[DennisC]

There are so many wrecks I would love to dive. My bucket list is probably 5 pages long haha. Thats probably because I have only been diving for 2 years though. Hopefully ill be able to hit one a year! next year will be the USS Oriskany (sorry if thats a lame start)

 

[Diver0001]

The wrecks on my bucket list are all unknown.

On the shipboard GPS they're listed as question marks. Just an object on the bottom that snagged a net and the fishermen put a "?" on the location so they could avoid it again.

It might be an old ship, or a newer one, it might be a war wreck or a merchant vessel that got lost in memory over time.

The hope of discovering something new, to fish out (as it were) the story of an unknown wreck is what makes my heart beat faster.

That, and the Britannic. I wouldn't say no to diving on the Britannic.

R..

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

There are three different criteria for wrecks. The first is wrecks that have a history. In that I would include:
.
1. Normandy wrecks of WW2
2. Scapa Flow
3. Thistlegorm
4. HMS Hermes
5. Truuk

Then there are wrecks that are pleasing to dive, either because of their size or because of picturesque setting. In this category my top candidates would be:

1. Oriskany
2. Spiegel Grove
3. Vandenberg
4. Papoose (for the sharks)

Finally there are wrecks that need to be dived because of their preservation. Great Lakes is extremely under-rated as a dive destination from this regard IMHO. Bell island wrecks in Canada would be a close second.

 

[Kevrumbo]

My Favorite List of WWII Indo-Pacific Wrecks I've dived on,
(a lot are in Truk Lagoon):

Shinkoku Maru (Truk)
Fujikawa Maru (Truk)
San Francisco Maru (Truk)
Nippo Maru (Truk)
Hoki Maru (Truk)
Heian Maru (Truk)
Kensho Maru (Truk)
Yamagiri Maru (Truk)
Kiyosumi Maru (Truk)
Rio de Janeiro Maru (Truk)
Aikoku Maru (Truk)
Katsuragisan Maru (Truk)
HMS Hermes Aircraft Carrier (east coast Sri Lanka)
HMAS Perth Light Cruiser (Sunda Strait Indonesia)
IJN Iro Oiler (Palau)
IJN Irako Transport (Coron Philippines)
USS Rochester/USS New York Heavy Cruiser (Subic Bay Philippines)
HIJMS Akitsushima Sea Plane Tender (Coron Philippines)
HIJMS Fumitsuki Destroyer (Truk)
HIJMS Oite Destroyer (Truk)
HMS Repulse Battlecruiser (off Kuantan Malaysia)
HMS Prince of Wales Battleship (off Kuantan Malaysia)
USS Houston Heavy Cruiser (Sunda Strait Indonesia)
SS President Coolidge Transport (Vanuatu)
USS Saratoga Aircraft Carrier (Bikini Atoll)
USS Arkansas Battleship (Bikini Atoll)
HIJMS Nagato Battleship (Bikini Atoll)

WWII Capital Ships, Transport & Tanker Wrecks still on the wish list:

USS Mississinewa Oiler (Ulithi Lagoon)
Prinz Eugen Heavy Cruiser (Kwajalein Atoll)
HIJMS Haguro Cruiser (Malacca Strait, off Penang Malaysia)
HNLMS De Ruyter Cruiser (Java Sea Indonesia)
HNLMS Java Light Cruiser (Java Sea Indonesia)
HNLMS Kortenaer Light Cruiser (Java Sea Indonesia)
HMS Exeter Heavy Cruiser (Java Sea Indonesia)
USS Lagarto Submarine (Gulf of Thailand)
USS Aaron Ward Destroyer (Tulagi, Guadalcanal)
USS Kanawha Oiler (Tulagi, Guadalcanal)
(Extremely Deep, 100m or more):
USS Flier Submarine (Balabac Strait Philippines)
USS Atlanta Lt Cruiser (Guadalcanal)
HIJMS Yamashiro Battleship (Surigao Strait Philippines)

 

[PfcAJ]

Ugh...

 

[Centrals]

(Extremely Deep, 100m or more):
USS Flier Submarine (Balabac Strait Philippines)
USS Atlanta Lt Cruiser (Guadalcanal)
HIJMS Yamashiro Battleship (Surigao Strait Philippines)

From the shallow(~110m) to the deepest(~190m).
Only two divers(NG expedition) had dived the Flier and only one(his claim) on Yamashiro. I believe armed guards were present on that NG expedition.
Atlanta is the easiest to get to.
Good luck.

BTW, there are at least 5 IJN destroyers(Shimakaze, Wakatsuki, Hamanami, Naganami and Kuwa and 3 USS destroyers(Cooper, Mahan and Ward) around Ormoc Bay in Leyte. All in pretty deep water with Shimakaze(an one-off super destroyer) the deepest.

 

[Makhno]

WWII Capital Ships, Transport & Tanker Wrecks still on the wish list:

I see your list doesn't include the IJN Kongo Battleship, which served in many naval actions including the Battle of Midway and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Kongo was damaged by air attacks during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, then finally sunk by 2 torpedoes from submarine USS Sealion north of Formosa, or what is now Taiwan. The Kongo was the last battleship to have been sunk by a submarine in wartime and was the only Japanese battleship to have suffered such a fate.

The wreck of the Kongo has yet to be discovered and dived. I have two conflicting sets of rough coordinates which place the wreck about 55-65 km north of Taipei, in waters possible as shallow as 70m and possibly as deep as 110m. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get any Taiwanese tech divers interested in trying to take any steps toward finding the wreck, such as asking fishermen for net snag numbers, etc.

 

[Nishan]

Obviously most lists are biased towards sites that are in popular destinations. When I can dive WWI armed merchantman just a 20 minute boat ride from my local beach with nobody but my dive buddy who discovered the wreck I just shrug my shoulders and smile when I see lists of artificial reefs visited by thousands of divers.

Chuuk is on my personal travel list although I am unsure when I can afford it. But until then there is another wreck close to home I need to go search for………………