Japanese Cargo Wreck Map Partial species list

In 1942, the year of Gorontalo’s independence, a Japanese cargo vessel loaded with copra, wood, and rattan caught fire after sailing. The helmsman turned the ship around and tried to return to port. He intended to run aground in the sand but instead hit the coral wall. The impact immediately pushed the stern underwater and the entire ship quickly sank. All crew managed to swim ashore, but the ship and its cargo were a total loss.

The ship now rests upside down just off the wall in 50 meters of water, its propeller within 26 meters of the ocean surface. Two-thirds of the hull leans on a rocky outcrop, falling at a 14-degree angle, until the hull buckles horizontally with the stern resting on the ocean floor. The wreck is almost level, tilting only slightly seaward. The hull bottom of the stern is heavily sprinkled with gorgonian whips that look purple in ambient light. About midway a large tear in the ship’s port side provides access at 44 meters; light is visible underneath the wreck from tears in its starboard side. The ship’s bow is almost completely exposed with two decks clearly evident.

The wreck is 50 meters long, 7 meters wide, and about 5 meters high (hull to deck).

Depth: 26 - 45 meters

Highlights: large, deep wreck

Conditions: Visibility on the wreck is typically about 15 meters. Even when upper waters are cloudy from runoff, visibility is often better below. Currents are seldom an issue.

Special Note: This deep wreck is only offered to advanced divers. Each buddy pair is responsible for its dive planning. Miguel’s Diving does not offer decompression diving nor encourage wreck penetration. Remember: the nearest hyperbaric chamber is a long day’s overland journey to Manado.

Virtual Dive

Divers descend past the first wall to a sandy crater filled with branching coral, green rope sponge, and an encrusted anchor. Covered with corals, sponges and other marine life, huge metal beams hang off the top of the second wall at 18 meters. A large Yellow-mask angelfish (Pomacanthus xanthometopon) plays hide-and-seek among the beams. A Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) sails into the deep.

Following the dive master, divers approach a thin line in the gloom below. Suddenly, the wreck appears. Swimming down the wreck’s length, divers head towards the stern to inspect several sea fans near a patch of purple gorgonians. Goatfish scour the hull for food. Near the bend in the hull a clump of bubble coral hosts a Coleman’s coral shrimp (Vir colemani), a species named in December 2003. With a careful eye on the computer, some divers descend down the face of the wreck to peer inside a large tear in its hull. Dive torches illuminate a host of sweetlips, snapper, and other fish underneath. With everyone proceeding to the bow, divers slowly ascend to see a pair of Humphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) swimming loops around the propeller.

Slowly ascending along the coral wall, divers notice the wildly carved surfaces of several large Salvador Dali sponges (Petrosia lignosa), found only on deep Indonesian walls. As time and air allow, divers explore coral slope and walls that reach all the way to the surface.

Japanese Cargo Wreck Map Partial species list

Virtual Dive

Dive in Gorontalo