Ijn Cruiser Kumano At Santa Cruz

[dirtguy49]

Hi

Has anyone dove on the WWII Japanese Heavy Cruiser Kumano at Santa Cruz, Dasol Bay, Zambales?

Interested to dive this wreck and need information on the wreck site, available dive support in the Santa Cruz area, etc.......

Thanks for information that you can supply.

 

[eagerbeaver]

Not much diving happening in that area and I've not heard of anyone diving the wreck or even that the wreck is in diveable depth. Usually if it's not a known wreck it means it too deep, or shallow enough to have been salvaged to pieces by local 'hookah' divers.

 

[dirtguy49]

Yeah, thanks Matt. I have had some more correspondence on this subject since I did this post and I am getting the same feeling. The US Navy surveyed the wreck at the end of the war and it had sunk in about 30 meters. Another diver in the Philippines who has located a number of war wrecks took a look for the Kumano in the late 90s and did not find it. So it may be gone........

 

[eagerbeaver]

Let us know if you find it!

 

[eagerbeaver]

Let us know if you find it!

 

[HOWARD HOFELICH]

Hi

Has anyone dove on the WWII Japanese Heavy Cruiser Kumano at Santa Cruz, Dasol Bay, Zambales?

Interested to dive this wreck and need information on the wreck site, available dive support in the Santa Cruz area, etc.......

Thanks for information that you can supply.

 

[HOWARD HOFELICH]

I found parts of the wreckage in 1989. I used a fathometer to find the wreckage. 100 feet deep, Dasol Bay. The deck log of the USS Chanticleer has the coordinates.

 

[JDW PADI 6119]

I spent about 10 years diving in the Philippines, most of it as a diving instructor. I have dove more than a few wrecks and made multiple trips to this particular site in 1973. Prior to diving I had the opportunity to talk with an old man about the final hours of this ship. This is what I remember of the conversation.

She sailed into the bay and anchored inland from an island. Troops were dispatched to cut foliage from the area and the foliage was used in an attempt to disguise the ship. This did not work as an American spotter plane flew overhead and apparently detected the ship. A while later in the day other aircraft showed up and proceeded to bomb/strafe the ship. They continued to strafe survivors in the water. According to the old man, those that made it to shore were killed by villagers.

Local people were already salvaging the wreck and several had already contracted the bends. They didn’t observe dive tables back then. Their methodology was to drop a stick of dynamite and pick up the pieces. I made sure that I wasn’t in the water when they were around.

The ship was lying on her starboard side and about half submerged in the sand. At the time one of her gun turrets was still attached. I saw several gas masks laying on the ocean floor. The metal had rusted away but the rubber was in remarkably good condition and the glass was still intact.

The last dive I made involved getting inside the wreck. It was pretty beat up but I did see more fire fighting equipment (gas masks), an absolutely huge stone fish…..and a human skull laying up against a bulkhead not five feet away.

If I remember correctly, the top of the wreck was in about 80 feet of water and the total water depth was around 110 feet.

I seriously doubt that there is anything left today.

And then there was the Yamashita‘s treasure gold dive in Negros Occidental, or maybe the gunship in Negros Oriental with a name on the ships bell called ‘USS Pueblo’. Or the many wrecks in Subic Bay. Did you know that the Spanish purposely sunk a ship between the mainland and the Island there? It was done to block Admiral Dewey's ships while the Spanish fleet escaped South to Manila Bay. You could still retrieve copper nails and sheeting from it in 1974.

 

[michael-fisch]

Hi

Has anyone dove on the WWII Japanese Heavy Cruiser Kumano at Santa Cruz, Dasol Bay, Zambales?

Interested to dive this wreck and need information on the wreck site, available dive support in the Santa Cruz area, etc.......

Thanks for information that you can supply.

Your picture shows the IJN Kumano as a light cruiser with 5x3 6" guns. During a refit that ended in Oct 1939 the
5x3 15.5 cm/60 3rd Year Type naval guns were exchanged for 5x2 20 cm/50 3rd Year Type Naval guns making the IJN Kumano officially a heavy cruiser.

Michael