Hanakawa Maru
Standard-B freighter (4,793 t, launched 1943), sunk by an aerial torpedo from Bunker Hill aircraft on 17 Feb 1944 while unloading army troops off the western side of the lagoon (Pacific Wrecks says just outside it); burning gasoline drums set the surface ablaze. She sits upright with a lush growth of soft and hard corals on the masts and topsides but murky water, and gasoline still seeps. Pacific Wrecks calls her rarely dived because she is over an hour by boat from the main wrecks.
Facts
- Region: Chuuk (Truk) Lagoon – Micronesia
- Area: Western lagoon & Weno
- Depth: 3–34 m
- Level: advanced
- Current: low
- Type: wreck
- Coordinates: 7.338125, 151.642748
- Highlights: soft coral, hard coral, masts, remote wreck
- Permit: A Chuuk State dive permit is required for every dive on the wartime wrecks (Chuuk Lagoon State Monument): US$50, valid one year, as listed by Odyssey Adventures, SS Thorfinn and the Blue Lagoon Dive Shop rate sheet (the older state-code text says US$30, so confirm when booking). Under the state code the permit is sold by the licensed dive shops/operators, who collect the fee for the state, and divers must go with a certified guide from a licensed shop. All Japanese ships and aircraft sunk before 31 Dec 1945 are protected monuments and war graves: taking or damaging anything is illegal (fine up to US$1,000 and/or six months in prison under the state code).
- Issuer / contact: Chuuk Visitors Bureau (CVB)
- Phone: +691 330-4133
- Email: executivedirector@visitchuuk.com
- Website: https://visitchuuk.com/contact-information
- CVB is the Chuuk State tourism office and is listed here as the official contact for visitor information; the permit itself is sold by the licensed dive operators (Chuuk State code Title 25 ch. 8, text at https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/mic79052.pdf). Operators (Thorfinn, Odyssey, Blue Lagoon) list US$50.
- Tips: Remote, rarely visited; petrol seepage can be hazardous – ask the operator whether trips run. Wrecks are war graves – look, photograph, take nothing. Some cargo (shells, mines, bombs) is unstable: do not touch it.