Well, Hivers it has been a little while since I last posted anything on the wrecks of Chuuk Lagoon so I think it's high time I did another one. The wreck this time is the IJN submarine I-169.
This is not the only submarine in Truk lagoon but I have yet to find anyone who knows the location of the Kaiten midget submarine which is supposed to be there, maybe one day.
Anyway on with the IJN I-169. Completed in 1935 the 98m long and 2440 ton submerged, which is 20m longer and 800 ton heavier than the German mkVII U boat. This Japanese Kaidai class submarine had taken part as a midget submarine tender at Pearl Harbour and had been running patrols from Kwajalein and Chuuk Lagoon for most of the war. Surviving aircraft and depth charge attacks on a number of occasions.
The back story to the sinking of this wreck is a rather sad one and a real catalog of errors. Unlike most of the wrecks in the lagoon, the I-169 was not sunk during operation Halestone in mid-February 1944 but 6 weeks later on the 4th of April 1944.
While at anchor of Dublon and taking on stores and undergoing minor repairs with the captain and 20 of the crew ashore the submarine was forced to submerge when an air raid from a US PB4Y Liberator bomber took place.
Then the submarine failed to resurface after the raid it was clear something had gone wrong and divers sent to investigate found some of the deck hatches still open and the main induction valve still open. Stuck on the bottom some of the crew had managed to seal off some sections and were still alive in the stricken vessel 38m below the surface.
The following day an attempt was made to raise bow of the submarine using a crane and a tug but the cable broke because of the flooded submarine's excessive weight. On the 6th of April, the submarine fell silent as the sailors and workmen who had survived the initial sinking slowly suffocated and died.
Over the next few weeks, divers recovered 32 bodies from the sub, and to prevent the Americans from finding any of her secrets, if they invaded, the wreck was depth charged and broken up leaving the remains scattered as divers find them today.
While within recreational diving depths at only 38m the I-169 isn't very often dived as very little resembles a submarine anymore.
Damage from the depth charges has really broken up the wreck.
Open hatches from the sinking.
Broken lifting cables from the failed salvage?
Anemone Fish and Ghost shrimp now call this wreck home.
All for now, Hivers hopefully not too long before the next installment.