Scuba Dive The Sankisan Maru Truk Lagoon Wreck (Top Wrecks To Scuba Dive)

The Sankisan Maru wreck was a 112 metres (370 feet) 4,776 ton Japanese cargo ship

This short article about the Sankisan Maru wreck provides you with a few basic details about this Japanese World War II ship. She is one of the many Truk Lagoon wrecks for scuba divers to enjoy in Chuuk Lagoon (formerly Truk Lagoon).

Scuba dive the Sankisan Maru Truk Lagoon Wreck: The Sankisan Maru wreck of Truk Lagoon is a top recreational dive as it has a maximum depth of 30 metres (100 feet). There’s plenty of artefacts and coral life to explore, including scattered ammunitions, trucks, plane parts and bottles. Located near Uman island in Chuuk Lagoon.

Truk Lagoon is the name these Pacific lagoons and islands were known as in 1944 when they were under 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 the correct name is Chuuk Lagoon. These famous wrecks are now dived by scuba divers 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:

Details of Sankisan Maru the largest Truk Lagoon wreck

The Sankisan Maru wreck was a cargo ship. Interestingly enough, it is thought that she was originally owned by the Americans. At the time it is said her name was the Red Hook.

The story goes that the Japanese captured Red Hook in 1942. However, subsequent research suggests that the Sankisan Maru that lies at the bottom of Truk Lagoon is a different ship to this.

• Sankisan Maru was requisitioned by the Japanese army to transport military personal and supplies.
• Her aft is at a depth of 15-30 metres (49-100 feet).
• This wreck is sitting upright.
• The stern section (which was blown apart) is at 48 metres (160 feet).
• The stern section of the ship is about 60 metres (200 feet) away from the aft section.
• Most of her aft section is missing, which was due to the huge explosion that occurred when she was finally sunk.
• She was sunk on 18th February 1944 after being hit by a torpedo.
• You’ll see from the video below that the fore ship and masts have beautiful coral growth and plenty of fish life.
• This makes the Sankisan Maru one of the best coral sites in Truk Lagoon.
• But if you’re also interested in World War II artefacts, this is a great Truk Lagoon wreck to dive.
• You’ll see trucks with their tyres still intact), plane parts, scattered bullets and ammunition, ink and medicine bottles.
• She was a 112 metres (370 feet) 4,776 ton Japanese cargo ship.

Scuba dive Truk Lagoon and Sankisan 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.

Comments on Sankisan Maru Truk Lagoon wreck

The Sankisan Maru wreck was sunk off the western shore of Uman Island, which can be seen on the Truk Lagoon wreck map. She was first attacked on 17th February 1944 during Operation Hailstone in World War II.

But it was on 18th February 1944 that she was finally sunk when she was hit by a torpedo in the aft holds. Because the Sankisan Maru was effectively a floating bomb, when the torpedo hit her there was a massive explosion. At the time of this hit the Japanese captain had already abandoned her with his crew onto the shores of Uman.

Similar to the Yamagiri Maru she makes a great recreational diving wreck, as she’s not one of the deep wrecks of Truck Lagoon. This is because she is less than 40 metres (131 feet) deep.

However, 30 metres (100 feet) is still deep enough to severely limit your bottom time. But if you use Nitrox on your dive, at 33-34% your bottom time can be up to 39 minutes based upon a no stop decompression dive.

This assumes you can make your air last that long at this depth. But you may need to consider twin-set dive tanks. But also make sure you conserve your air well.

Sankisan Maru video

This is a video of Sankisan Maru Truk Lagoon wreck:

https://youtu.be/5J11jM09Zk8

I hope you enjoyed this article about Sankisan Maru 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 Sankisan Maru 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!