The Solomon Islands Gallery: Part II- The Toa Maru

The Toa Maru was a Japanese cargo ship sunk by the United States during World War II. Today she rests on her starboard side in depths ranging from 40 to 130 feet. We were fortunate to be able to do two dives on this wreck on our trip in the Solomon Islands.On our first dive we explored the outside of the ship, reaching a depth of 115 feet. During the second dive on the Toa Maru, we explored the cargo holds, crew quarters, and engine room. Many wartime artifacts remain on the ship, including a tank, racks of ammunition, and countless bottles of Sake. This was one of my favorite dive sites of the trip. I found conflicting reports as to how the Toa Maru sank. One stated that the U.S. submarine Searaven torpedoed her on November 25, 1943. The other claims she went down on the night of January 29, 1943 as the result of an aerial attack by the United States. It is funny how history gets fuzzy nearly 75 years after the event happened. One thing is certain, there is a large hole in the starboard side of the ship that caused her to go down. We got to swim out of the ship through it on our second dive. Sorry in advance for all the scrolling you'll have do do on this one...