Me on the USS Saratoga

Matthew on the Prinz Eugen

Stephen on the Nagato

Truck Master, our home for the next 10 days.

Before setting out to Bikini there were a couple of cool shakedown dives on the Prinz Eugen. This German heavy cruiser has 8 x 8” guns and, together with the Bismarck, sank HMS Hood in 1941. It was badly damaged by the bombs of Operation Crossroads and then towed to Kwajalein for salvage where it turned over and sank. Part of the rudder and a propeller are out of the water with the bow in 30 metres.

Prinz Eugen’s propellers.

The bow upside down.

4" casemate guns.

A pair of the 8” guns.

Torpedo Store.

It took our dive boat 'Truck Master' 26  hours to cross the ocean to Bikini. It can take 36 hours in rough weather.

Bikini Island is the biggest Island in Bikini Atoll. An atoll is the remains of an extinct volcano that has partially sunk back into the ocean. They often form a ring of islands but sometimes there are islands in the middle such as in the Maldives. Inside the ring is a lot shallower than outside the ring which can be miles deep. Bikini inside is pretty flat at between 50m and 52m.

For Operation Crossroads 97 ships and submarines were anchored on a grid inside the atoll. The first bomb 'Able' was let off 500 feet in the air and didn’t do that much damage. The second bomb 'Baker' was let off 90 feet below the surface and did far more damage. A lot of the vessels could have been recovered if they hadn’t become radioactive. Up to Operation Crossroads they thought the radiation was due to the debris from the explosion and tried to clean it off. This is why so many of the ships are relatively intact, though like all wrecks they are deteriorating so always interesting to go back after a few years.

On reaching Bikini our initial dives were on the Aircraft Carrier USS Saratoga. This vast wreck stands upright with the keel on the seabed at 52m, the flight deck at 30m and the top of the bridge at about 18m.  We did a total of 6 dives on the Saratoga and still only saw two thirds of the ship.

Even with 30m plus visibility, it is difficult to take a picture that takes in the bow from the end of the flight deck to the keel on the seabed. It’s even harder to get a good picture of the bridge as the swarms of glass fish form a permanent halo around it.

Not so many fish inside the bridge but there is a bit more silt, especially if someone was there first!

Occasionally you get a clear shot of a gun.

Also to be seen are turtles and reef sharks.

The main lift shaft gives access to the various decks. It is from the forward side of the shaft that most of the penetration dives start. Surplus cylinders are left on the flight deck, down you go to the chosen entrance!

CIC (Command Information Centre) and Senior Officers’ Quarters with radar, comms, galley and barbers.

Machine Shop is the lowest entrance where you are greeted by a gas mask and then lathes, mills and drills.

The Dentists’ Surgery is quite a trip through several doors, down a flight of stairs and then back one deck down. On the way you pass the Purser’s office and a diving helmet.

Traveling through the wreckage on the aft side of the lift shaft are several racks of live bombs together with the crushed remains of a few aircraft and artifacts that divers have pulled out of the wreckage.

Scattered on the seabed around the Saratoga are a number of aircraft that would have been on the flight deck when the bombs were let off. Most are upside down and still have their bombs in them.

Moving on to the USS Anderson, a Sims-class destroyer.

The knife edge of the bow on its side with the keel to the left.

The first of the 5 x 5” guns.

And the second.

The bridge.

4 of the 8 torpedo tubes.

A depth charge on the end of one of two racks on the stern. The fish are getting in the way again!

Next up was the massive Nagato, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s flagship during the attack on Pearl Harbour.

The weight of the huge 8 x 16” guns turned her as she sank. This is the classic shot photographers go for.

A batfish gives some idea of the size of the guns’ turret.

My turn to pose for the camera.

The top of Nagato’s bridge is lying on its side and was called ‘The Pagoda’ due to its height and shape.

I prefer this photograph of one of the Pagoda’s rangefinders in black & white.

I took the first picture of the rudders and the port propellers and didn’t realise I was also being photographed.

Moving on to the Apogon a US Balao-class submarine. This was significantly bigger than the German U2021 I had dived on a few weeks earlier.

Brain coral on the radar.

Front and back of the conning tower largely obscured by fish.

Is this the range finder or SpongeBob SquarePants hiding in Bikini Bottom?

Somewhere behind those fish is a torpedo in the stern tube.

More glassfish at the stern.

Just over halfway through and we take a break from diving to off gas and visit Bikini Island. Abandoned a few years ago due to misappropriated US funds, it looks as though everyone expected to be back in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately  all food and water from the island is poisonous, although they clearly tried to grow stuff.

Next the Lamson, a Mahan-class destroyer.

She had 4 x 5" guns

10 Anti-Aircraft guns

12 torpedo tubes...

...Including torpedo!

2 racks of depth charges on the stern.

4 depth charge projectors on the sides.

Last but not least, we dived on the USS Arkansas. A Wyoming-class dreadnought battleship with 12 x 12” guns and 21 x 5” guns. As is to be expected with this weight of armament she is upside down.