Travel » Guam in Alaska

GUAM:

It doesn’t matter how many dives you’ve made on shipwrecks, when the eerie shape of a submerged vessel slowly comes into view, adrenaline flows and your anticipation surges. In the wa­ters of Guam’s Apra Harbour there are over 60 war remnants that hold the promise of history, mystery and under­water exploration. Perhaps the most interesting, and certainly the most popular, are the wrecks of the Cormoran and the Tokai Maru, which lie side by side and all but touching. During World War 1, the SMS Cormoran, a German ship, was whiling away her time in Guam when the USA and Germany declared war. Rather than surrender his ship, the German captain scuttled it without warn­ing.

The ship sank quickly and many crewmembers were drowned. A few dec­ades later, during World War II, the Tokai Maru was sitting at anchor in Apra Har­bour which had been taken by the Japanese when an American subma­rine made a bold daylight strike, firing from the harbour entrance and scoring a direct hit. She sank within landing right beside the only place in the world wrecks from two world wars together. The Cormoran is a small today’s standards, and can be in one dive, though most divers go back for many visits. The open engine leads to other passages and there is still a lion claw bathtub deep in one of the heads. ‘Me Tokai is more accessible, its open, light-filled passages are inviting; but because the ship sits heavily on its port side they can also be disorienting. Dive these wrecks, as you any others, with extreme care.