The Tangat Wreck

A.K.A.

Morazan Maru



 

Most of the shipwrecks in and around Coron Bay are freighters or other varieties of none fighting ship, the exception being the Akitsushima. The so called Tangat Wreck is yet another freighter, and of considerable size yet again. Recent research has given her the name of Morazan Maru but she has also been called the Taiei Maru! Even the Japanese got confused over what ship was called what and where it was... no wonder they lost the war!

Tangat Wreck - Morazan Maru - whatever... was bombed so comprehensively that in places her cargo decks have been crushed down until they touch. There is an interesting area towards the bow containing loads of big oil barrels though it's not certain, even after close inspection what they held. A similar wreck in Truk Lagoon carries similar barrels and divers leave the water there with their skin seemingly on fire. Fortunately that's not happened to either of us on the Tangat Wreck! The bridge area is still just about ok for limited penetration and did not seem to suffer quite as badly as the decks and holds during the bombing though it is clear that this area was heavily targeted from the number of immediately adjacent near misses.  The stern on the other hand has an area which is still practically intact. It never ceases to amaze me how the instantaneous release of hot gas which is the explosion of a bomb can twist and tear inches thick steel so comprehensively; and of how such a devastating device is little more than a telling monument to man's ultimate stupidity.

So all philosophical pontificating aside, she's big and she's absolutely covered in fish, coral and assorted sea critters, especially those pesky scorpion fish you never see until you have all but sat on one. I hate that particular fish mainly because of the number of frights they have given me and the number of times Tan Tan's hand has dragged me up out of harm's way!!! On one occasion Tracy "climbed" up a ladder between decks to try to get a deck hand's perspective and came eyeball to eyeball with a very large scorp just as she reached the top deck - he was lying right on the edge of the deck at the head of the ladder and his snout can't have been more than two inches from her face. Seriously though, this wreck seems to positively teem with life, especially around the netted AA gun mount at the bow. We have even seen tiny seahorses in their nests amongst seaweed growing on the walls of the wreck.

A great dive to begin your trip, she's not got too many nasties, the ubiquitous scorpion fish aside that is, and penetration is easy - unlike on the Irako! More of that on another page though! And when you've done a dive there's nothing more restful - no... positively soporific - than to lie back on the bench in the boat above this wreck listening to the sounds of the jungle coming from the island close by. We have seen sea eagles fishing here and monkeys running along the beach... or were they just the tourists staying at the resort hotel on the island?

I think not though knowing the Brits abroad I wouldn't have been surprised

 

 

                                 

Don't forget that if you wish to see a larger version of any of the images below all you have to do is click the relevant thumbnail and it will open a new window displaying a much bigger version of the photograph. Don't



Our January 2007 visit...




A juvenile Trevally hiding amongst the weed on the side of the Tangat wreck...

A tiny seahorse...

A ladder descends into one of the wrecks holds...

Mike Holroyd...

Tracy floats past watching the fish at the stern of the Tangat wreck...

A small black Moray eel...

The vertical yellow stripes on the photo are tiny fish aligning themselves vertically to hide amongst the weed...

A large fish swims over the wreck in the hazy water...

 

 

Our July 2007 visit...


 

 
v Tracy about to enter the stern area of the wreck... An attempt with filters to capture the real colours at depth... A ladder ascending to the stern deck...
Quite what these are we never found out but I suspect they were animal not vegetable... As with all the Coron Bay wrecks coral covers almost every external surface... We do not know what these drums carried but unlike in Truk Lagoon it doesn't appear to have been toxic... Within the stern of the wreck...
Fish are everywhere on this wreck - more than on any of the others... A bulkhead within the wreck... A ladder ascends the bulkhead... TJ!
The prop tunnel affords convenient access and egress from compartment to compartment within the wreck... I spy with my little eye - another bl**dy Scorpionfish!!! "Honest Stu", a used car salesman from Essex... Look at the tiny cleaner wrasse making his advertisement to entice M!
A nudibranch? General view of the vegetation on the wreck and it's inhabitants... Divers in deco... The New Zealand contingent of Sea People!
I think Delta P owe us a freebie for this picture! Batfish are often a fixture when you are in deco on the line! Batty-boy close up!

 

 

*** Click below to return to our Philippines main page ***