KOROR, Palau - More than 81 years after an unidentified Japanese naval auxiliary ship sank in Palau’s Malakal harbor, hundreds of explosives have been removed from the vessel’s hold, making the site safe for tourists and other explorers.
Known as the Helmet Wreck, the ship was discovered in January 1990 by Dan Bailey, who was working from U.S. aerial combat photographs taken during the war.
The vessel was destroyed in late March 1944, when an explosion tore out the aft starboard side, exposing a hold filled with depth charges and stacks of steel Japanese Army helmets fused together.
Because of the stacked helmets, the site became known as the Helmet Wreck.
Last week, Palau President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. dove the shipwreck with a team from the Japan Mine Action Service and the Koror State Rangers to survey the cleanup work.
“I wanted to dive on it to let people know that it's safe, and so that hopefully the tourists will go back and visit,” Whipps said.
He thanked the Japan Mine Action Service and the government of Japan, which funded the six-year, $4 million Explosive Remnants of War project.
The president said the removal of the depth charges was especially tricky.
The work had to be slow and meticulous to prevent any mishaps.
“In fact, they removed 429 depth charges. So that's why it took so long. So they were explaining the process. They would go into the hold, had to break them apart, because they already kind of welded together,” he said. “And then they'd have to bring it out, encase it in plastic, and then bring it to the surface.”
From there, the explosives were taken away and burned.
Safer port project
He said the removal of the depth charges from the shipwreck fits in with a separate project to upgrade and extend the port.
“You can't fill the port and upgrade it without taking care of that wreck, because if that explodes, the port will collapse, right? So the good news is, the wreck has been cleaned up. We can be sure that when the port is completed, we don't have a chance of that explosion happening and then possibly affecting the port.”
He said the port extension only goes about 100 feet more, and the work won’t affect other historic shipwrecks in the harbor.
“There are places that they're going to dredge to be a little bit deeper, because currently, the dock can only accommodate vessels less than 10 meters,” Whipps said. “So they're going to make it so you can get down to 12 meters. Ships can come in. Bigger ships can come in, because right now the biggest ship, sometimes they're stirring up the bottom because it is too shallow.”
Saving the coral
During his dive, the president noticed that the cleanup of the Helmet Wreck had damaged some coral.
Whipps saw the damage as an opportunity.
“Maybe this is a good site, because it kind of ties into the port,” he said. “There is some coral that will be affected with the port operation. Let's transplant some of that coral there and rehabilitate that, and maybe we can make it a dive site that people can go dive and plant coral.”
Although the depth charges are gone, the wreck still holds some mysteries.
Almost 36 years after it was discovered, the ship has not been identified.
The cargo on board was definitely Japanese, but author and historian Klaus Lindemann noted that the ship itself appeared to have been built in Europe.
The vessel’s measurements do not match any lost Japanese ships to date, and there has been speculation that the ship might have been captured early in the war and converted by the Japanese.
