More underwater wreck pictures from Kwajalein Atoll...

[corsairfreak]

Hi all,

Three days ago, I dove on the wreck of another H6K 'Mavis' that's just off Ebeye island, near the Ebeye pier. This is the second of two H6K's that are off Ebeye...the other is farther north, just off the old seaplane ramp. Ebeye was the site of a Japanese seaplane base prior to the invasion of Kwajalein Atoll by U.S. forces in late Jan. 1944.

The research that I've done since diving the first 'Mavis' several months back, indicates that both of these H6K's were strafed and sunk on Feb. 1, 1942, by SBD's from the USS ENTERPRISE. That date is significant for two reasons- it was not only the date of the first American attack on Kwajalein Atoll, but it was also the first U.S. offensive action against the Japanese during WWII.

This H6K wreck is pretty much a jumbled pile, but there's more to it than the 'Mavis' wreck farther north. For example, on this wreck all four engines are present. More of the fuselage is present as well, although a large section of what appears to be the aft fuselage lies about 100 feet away from the main wreckage area.

This wreck is about 50 feet deep, which is a comfortable depth for scuba diving. I shot a total of 61 pictures of this wreck during my dive on it. I've sent the best 19 pictures in to J-aircraft.com for their Relics section. Of those 19, I'm posting 8 of them here today.

I shot these pictures using a digital SeaLife Reefmaster DC600. The other diver seen in a couple of these pictures is Hal Parker, a friend of mine who is also a WWII history buff and wreck diving enthusiast.

And now, on to the pictures. I hope you like them. Cheers all!

Dan, from Kwajalein

[comiso90]

Holy sh!t...

awesome!

I wanna go!

[syscom3]

Thanks for posting this!

[Aggie08]

That would be incredible. Lucky. Any more aircraft around the area?

[ccheese]

Damn !! Words escape me !

Charles

[HoHun]

Hi Corsairfreak,

>And now, on to the pictures. I hope you like them. Cheers all! :)

Very impressive! :-)

A spontaneous thought: Have you considered making stereoscopic pictures?

It occurred to me because as I'm not a diver, I had difficulties "reading" the shots at first - and then I thought, "Hey, stereo pictures would be great!"

(You'd have to mount two identical cameras side-by-side and trigger them simultaneously, and then find a way to display the pictures stereoscopically, for example with a suitable software and LCD shutter glasses, so it would be quite a project. Still, stereo pictures would give a fantastic sense of being there ... Probably more important for us than for you as you actually were there after all! :-)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[comiso90]

The Mavis was so huge.. it looks like a ship wreck.

Human life aside.. what could be more fun then running across a Mavis or ME-323?

Yes there were challenges but it's like demolishing a building!

.

[FLYBOYJ]

[v2]

[corsairfreak]

Glad you like the pictures!

HoHun- to answer your question, the idea of stereoscopic pictures had never entered my mind. That would require an additional camera, and they're kinda pricey. Maybe a bit down the road I'll do something like that. For now, I'd have to settle for pasting a couple pictures together side-by-side, such as 2 pictures I took while panning, to create a wide shot. Thanks for the idea! If that would enhance the viewing pleasure for you and everyone else, I'll do what I can.

Aggie08- to answer your question, there are indeed other aircraft wrecks in the area. For photos I've taken of the Japanese ones that I've dived on, check out this link, and look under my name (Dan Farnham) near the top of the page-

Remaining Relic Photos

Also, I've dived on several American planes off Roi-Namur, at the north end of the atoll. I've written a couple of articles on those dives, with more to come. Here's the links to the two articles that I've completed to date-

Large Scale Planes

Large Scale Planes

I recently wrote another on diving three of the Japanese planes out here- the first 'Mavis' I dove, plus a 'Jake' and a 'Rufe'...those galleries appear at the link to J-aircraft.com above. The new one hasn't been published online yet, but I'll provide the link here when it is. I've got three more articles on diving plane wrecks out here in various stages of completion, with plans for 5 or 6 more. So, more to come!

Cheers all!

Dan

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Very cool. Thanks for posting the pics. I would love to go and experience something like this.

[HoHun]

Hi Dan,

>That would require an additional camera, and they're kinda pricey.

I was afraid that would be the case when I saw the "naval" name of your camera :-/ Specialized equipment usually comes at a premium - but from the looks of your photographs, it's worth it

(Thinking about it, a cheap and quick way would be to use two disposable underwater cameras for conventional film, taped into a side-by-side position. Then you could view the result with a simple stereo viewer. Hm, not sure these cameras are available for positive film, though ... and I don't know if there's enough light for these at wreck depths.)

>Maybe a bit down the road I'll do something like that. For now, I'd have to settle for pasting a couple pictures together side-by-side, such as 2 pictures I took while panning, to create a wide shot. Thanks for the idea!

Sounds promising! There is a great free tool for that:

AutoStitch

It just requires you to specify the path to the pictures and the desired output size, the rest is fully automatic, with close to perfect results. Try it, words can't describe how cool it is

(While taking the pictures, you have to generate some overlap between the individual frames and try to keep the horizon in a defined position - not critical for underwater shots. The software doesn't do vertical panoramas, though it will stitch shots taken at an oblique angle up or down to a horizontal panorama.)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[ToughOmbre]

Awesome

TO

[Gnomey]

Excellent Pictures!

[Hot Space]

Glad you like the pictures!

HoHun- to answer your question, the idea of stereoscopic pictures had never entered my mind. That would require an additional camera, and they're kinda pricey. Maybe a bit down the road I'll do something like that. For now, I'd have to settle for pasting a couple pictures together side-by-side, such as 2 pictures I took while panning, to create a wide shot. Thanks for the idea! If that would enhance the viewing pleasure for you and everyone else, I'll do what I can.

Aggie08- to answer your question, there are indeed other aircraft wrecks in the area. For photos I've taken of the Japanese ones that I've dived on, check out this link, and look under my name (Dan Farnham) near the top of the page-

Remaining Relic Photos

Also, I've dived on several American planes off Roi-Namur, at the north end of the atoll. I've written a couple of articles on those dives, with more to come. Here's the links to the two articles that I've completed to date-

Large Scale Planes

Large Scale Planes

I recently wrote another on diving three of the Japanese planes out here- the first 'Mavis' I dove, plus a 'Jake' and a 'Rufe'...those galleries appear at the link to J-aircraft.com above. The new one hasn't been published online yet, but I'll provide the link here when it is. I've got three more articles on diving plane wrecks out here in various stages of completion, with plans for 5 or 6 more. So, more to come!

Cheers all!

Dan

Those are amazing pictures m8

You're a very lucky man to be able to take time out to photograph all these 'War Relics'.

Thanks for posting them and the 2 Links up - amazing read