The I-169 Submarine was sunk during Operation Hailstone in 1944
This short article about the I-169 Submarine Wreck is to provide you with a few basic details about this Japanese World War II submarine I-169. This submarine is one of the many Truk Lagoon wrecks for scuba divers to dive in Chuuk Lagoon.
Truk Lagoon wreck I-169 submarine was sunk by American forces at Truk Lagoon during Operation Hailstorm in 1944. The I-169 submarine wreck is the only submarine in Chuuk Lagoon and was the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Kaidai-class cruiser submarine of the KD6 sub-class built in 1930.
Truk Lagoon is the name these Pacific lagoons and islands were named in 1944 when they were in Japanese occupation. However, the name of Truk Lagoon was renamed in 1990 to Chuuk Lagoon.
Scuba divers seem to use these two names synonymously. Whilst the correct name is Chuuk Lagoon, at the time these ship wrecks were sunk it was named Truk Lagoon.
The best way to dive Truk Lagoon is by a scuba diving liveaboard. You can check the latest and best deals on Truk Lagoon liveaboards using the following window:
This list of Truk Lagoon liveaboards is in descending customer rating order, followed by Scuba Diving Luxury Rating (SDE Lux Rating, see below), so the liveaboards with the highest customer rating and the best SDE lux rating will be at the top of the list. If you want to change the list order, use the “Sort by” dropdown below.
The Scuba Diving Earth Luxury Rating (SDE Lux Rating) is explained on each liveaboard review when you click the “Discover Liveaboard” link, and is my own Liveaboard Luxury Rating I’ve assigned to all liveaboards. Choosing between liveaboards is helped by customer scores, and if you get stuck choosing between two or three liveaboards, where each one has a high customer score out of 10, you can use the SDE Luxury Rating to help narrow down your choice.
Think about it like using Booking.com when searching for the best hotel. Booking.com also use a customer score where each customer rates hotels out of 10. This is similar to the liveaboard customer rating, which is also rated out of 10. But let’s say you only like to stay in hotels rated 8 and above on Booking.com, but you also want the hotel to have WIFI or parking, or to have a swimming pool etc. The features each hotel has is usually secondary to the score out of 10.
Details of i-169 Submarine the only submarine wreck of the Truk Lagoon wrecks
I-169 Submarine was a Japanese submarine weight of 1,400 tons.
She was 98 metres (322 feet) in length and had a beam of 27 metres (8 feet).
The I-169 Submarine is the only submarine of all the Truk Lagoon Wrecks.
She sits at a maximum depth of 43 metres (140 feet) and has a minimum depth of 37 metres (120 feet).
To see the location of the I-169 on a map, please follow this link to: Truk Lagoon wreck map.
Not dived as much the other wrecks of Truk Lagoon, as there are no passage ways or engine rooms to go in.
Plus it’s not covered by as much coral as there is on other Truk Lagoon Wrecks.
Comments on I-169 Submarine wreck
She is considered dangerous for scuba divers to enter. But you’ll see in the video below a diver does penetrate the inside of this fascinating submarine wreck.
Inside I-169 Submarine in Truk Lagoon On my second trip to Truk Lagoon in Feb 2019 I went inside I-169, the submarine in Truk Lagoon, Chuuk. I-169 is the only diveable Japanese Submarine in the world. It is a Kaidai type submarine and participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was sunk due to operator error during a raid on April 4, 1944.
My advise is you don’t go inside the I-169 submarine wreck, as this could prove to be very dangerous. It’s probably as dangerous as cave diving, as you don’t have an easy exit route. Listen to the comments of Pete Peterson in the second video below.
As the first video was of the inside of the I-169 Submarine, here’s a video of the outside of the I-169.
I hope you enjoyed this article about I-169 wreck of Truk Lagoon
I’d love to hear from you. Tell us about your adventures of diving and snorkeling, in the comments below. Please also share your photos. Either from your underwater cameras or videos from your waterproof Gopro’s!
If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkeling or scuba diving (or specifically about I-169 Submarine wreck of Truk Lagoon), please comment below with your questions.
There will also be many more articles about scuba diving (and snorkeling) for you to read and learn about these fabulous sports.
Have fun and be safe!
I-169 Submarine Wreck Of Truk Lagoon (Details Of Truk Lagoon Wrecks)
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been a scuba diver since diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1989. After his first dive he trained as a BSAC diver in the UK. He attained his Diver Leader certification with BSAC. He then went on to become a scuba diving instructor, teaching others how to dive and was voted as Diving Officer and Treasurer for the Saffron Walden BSAC club too. Russell has dived all over the world, including the UK, on liveaboards in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, South Africa and the USA. Russell is experienced in all dive types, including drift diving, deep dives that involved decompression stops and recreational dives too.
