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The Heian Maru lies in the old submarine anchorage.We had morning tea at Eten Island, then headed up the western coast of Dublon Island to the Heian Maru. This ship was a passenger and cargo liner, which was converted into a submarine depot ship. It is the largest ship in the lagoon (155 metres long and 11,616 tons) and lies on its port side in 33 metres in the old submarine anchorage. The water was green rather than blue, indicating that the visibility was down to about 15 metres. Rod and I followed Neil and Paul’s air bubbles over the side near the bridge. We swam towards the stern alongside the complex deck structure looking in various holes. We finally reached the stern and swam around the counter to the port propeller, then up through the rudder to the starboard one. We swam back a little higher and then along the promenade deck where we saw several long pipes. Rod identified these as submarine periscopes. We went deep into Hold 2 and found some torpedoes and warheads. I reached 50 Bar and zero minutes to deco, and changed to my pony bottle. We continued on and found Neil and Paul near the bow. They had been deep inside the ship and seen a great deal of charring caused by the uncontrolled fire, which started after the ship was strafed. We found the name of the ship on the bow in English, then we all ascended the buoy line. |
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