Monday 22 September – snorkelling over Japanese WW2 wreck

John was waiting for us to take us to the wreck, he let us know he had been waiting 10 minutes even though according to my watch we were only 5 minutes late! He is a a very nice, humble, gentle man. Interestingly he is 32 and has no kids, Rowan went passed his house yesterday and said it was very nice. We went straight out to the wreck which was about a km from where we are anchored.

The wreck is of an armed WW2 Japanese freighter called Sanko Maru (no irony in the name Sanko!), is in shallow water off the fringing reef on the southern side of Tunung Island. This is the correct spelling of the island, Google maps and Apple maps have it incorrectly as Dunung Island, I suppose because of the way it is pronounced. It was sunk by American B-25 Mitchell bombers in 1944, the wreck has become a wonderful coral garden thanks to the rich waters of the Bismarck Sea and Pacific Ocean that sweep the north-west coast of New Hanover. It was amazing snorkelling over it, most of it so visible at about 10-15ms, the fan coral was amazing, with round balls of coral that looked like they had clams in them. Plenty of fish too as it is a bit further from shore. The freighter was towing an armed mini submarine which sunk in deeper waters about 50ms away and was only discovered in 1987.

A little history ……When Japan invaded PNG in January 1941, they landed first at Kavieng on New Ireland Island and soon after at Rabaul on nearby New Britain Island. A relatively small, but very strategic, military base was established by the Japanese in Kavieng (that is why we were able to visit so many Japanese war relics from our anchorage near Nusa Resort). Enabling the Japanese to guard what was effectively the back-door of the overall invasion. So when the tide of war in the Pacific changed at the end of 1943, Kavieng became a key target as the allied forces counter-attacked. Major air raids were carried out on Kavieng by squadrons of B-52 Mitchell bombers on the 11^th February, 1944. And over the next few days the base, together with its fleet of sea-planes, was destroyed. Those air raids were followed up on the 16^th February. When six squadrons of bombers went in search of a 14-ship Japanese convoy heading for the area. The Sanko Maru was one of three vessels from that convoy that were found in Three Island Harbour, on the north-western tip of New Hanover. The Sanko Maru was the first to be attacked by the B25’s with their 500lb bombs and was quickly sunk. The unidentified submarine was reported by the air crews. The Sanko Maru was  apparently one of the Japanese ” Hell Ships”, requisitioned merchant ships used to transport prisoners of war under absolutely appalling conditions. 

After we finished at the wreck we went and snorkelled on the reef where John said they had the best coral, certainly some of the coral was fantastic but sadly it appears heavily fished as there are only small fish about. Although we did see a very nice big grouper when we got in.

We had a good afternoon under our awning and the last of our laundry pile was done. It was great drying weather on this very hot day. Five o’clock John met us at the beach where we could leave the dinghy without having to navigate the reef to go around to the resort for dinner. The streets on the island are beautifully maintained and have colourful hedging either side, no cars here, just walking streets. We visited the school and handed over some books and loads of pens and pencils. The village has no state sponsored school, so Clem the resort owner has started a private school. We were so impressed with the new classrooms and accommodation for the teachers. It is a shame that Clem is away, he seems to be the real anchor of the village, and he is not a chief, there appears to be no chief on this island. There was a crowd playing volley ball on the school playing fields, so nice to see boys and girls of all ages playing. When the younger kids started playing Rowan joined in for a while ….. very sweaty work!

We headed over to the resort for supper, escorted by John (Clem’s nephew). Clem’s wife greeted us, she and John’s wife, Bonnie cooked for us and joined us for supper which was lovely. No men from the resort joined us for the meal just the ladies. The resort had two intrepid older Aussie ladies staying so they were eating with us too. They were both teachers, and principals in Tasmania, and once a year go on adventurous holidays together. We were so surprised that they could have found this remote place. It is a surf spot, and caters mainly for surfers in the season. They are here for 11 days and have been taken on various trips every day, they were loving it, it is pretty basic accommodation. It was a fun, interesting evening. John and Bonnie escorted us back to the dinghy in the dark. Always relieved that I keep a torch permanently in my bag. The tide had gone out so it was a little tricky getting beyond the reef, luckily we leave plenty of lights on PolePole so she is like a Christmas tree on the water and can’t be missed!