Nippo Maru was a heavily laden cargo ship sunk during Operation Hailstone
This short article about Nippo Maru wreck provides a few basic details about this Japanese World War II ship. The Nippo Maru is one of the many Truk Lagoon wrecks for scuba divers to enjoy in Chuuk Lagoon (formerly Truk Lagoon).
Scuba dive the Nippo Maru of Truk Lagoon: Scuba dive the Nippo Maru wreck of Truk Lagoon at a depth of 18-40 metres (60-180 feet). This wreck is one of the most popular Truk Lagoon wrecks with recreational divers as it has plenty of World War II artefacts to find. These including a battle tank, field guns and gas masks.
Truk Lagoon is the name these Pacific lagoons and islands were known as in 1944 when they were in Japanese occupation. However, the name of Truk Lagoon was changed in 1990 to Chuuk Lagoon. Scuba divers seem to use these two names synonymously. But Chuuk Lagoon is the present name.
These famous wrecks are dived by scuba divers from across the world
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:
Scuba dive Truk Lagoon and Shinkoku Maru wreck by liveaboard:
Truk Lagoon dive liveaboards table
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 Nippo Maru wreck
The Nippo Maru was a heavily laden cargo ship.
She is sitting upright at a depth of 18-48 metres (60-180 feet).
She is east of Tonoas (Dublon) Island.
Nippon Maru was a passenger and cargo freighter before she was requisitioned by the Japanese navy.
On-board she had coastal defence guns, field artillery (as per the above image), trucks, a tank, machine guns, shells and mines.
The Nippo Maru wreck has a particularly photogenic bridge.
Sunk by three 500lb bombs, which was by the American TBF Avengers aircraft on 17th February 1944 on the first day of Operation Hailstone.
She was 108 metres (354 feet) in length.
Nippon Maru had a 3,764-ton cargo carrying capacity.
Nippo Maru was first launched in Kobe, Japan in 1936.
The word ‘Maru’ in Japanese ship naming protocol designates a merchant vessel.
To see the location of this wreck on the map, please follow this link to: Truk Lagoon wreck map.
Comments on Nippo Maru ship wreck
The Nippo Maru is such an exciting wreck. Especially for divers interested in World War II artefacts.
Diving the Nippo Maru – Truk Lagoon – WWII Japanese ship wreck Nippo Maru – Cargo ship heavily laden, sitting upright. Coastal defence guns, field artillery, trucks, tank, machine guns, shells, mines and photogenic bridge.
I hope you enjoyed this article about Nippo Maru ship wreck of Truk Lagoon
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If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkeling or scuba diving (or specifically about Nippo Maru 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!
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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.
