The Nagano was one of the first deeper dives that I did during my first visit to Truk in 06. I was completely blown away.! The engine room was one of the first places I went into. Now there were no scuff marks anywhere to be seen. Also there were long rust stalicmites dangling from the walkway railings. Now if you touch those things they explode into a rust snow storm. Totally untouched! Love it. One of the best parts of this ship apart from the engineroom is hold 2. There is a prestine flatbed truk sitting on the port side of the ship. All the glass is still intact. Eary..... every time I swim up to the window I think that someone is going to shout "BOOOO" and I am going to quietly shit myself!!

Its a great wreck and worthy of many many dives. I cant wait to get back there. We had more time in the superstructure and had a great time having a dig. LOADS of porcelain amongst the rubble and again its amazing how the Japanese were sobre during any of the fighting. There were, like I mean, millions of bottles of saki on these ships.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. My camera craped out on this dive losing the focus ring so I could only get off a few shots. Next trip hah!!!

July 09

Yeah this wreck is one of Truks best.One of the ways that the locals locate the wreck is to get to the general area of the wreck and smell for oil! Yes SMELL for oil. I thought BOLLOCKS!! But sure enough when we got close we could smell the beautiful stench of oil. Man it really is pungant. The first time we dived this in 2006 it took us 2 hours to find it. Dragging the anchor we eventually hooked onto it. That day was one of the calmest days I have seen there. Man did the smell of that oil sit deep in your nasal cavities. Love it!!!

SHIP STATS

Tonnage: 3824 gross
Length: 105 m
Breadth: 15 m
Draught: 7 m
Engine: reciprocating (oil)
Horsepower: 842p
Speed: knots; 10 knots
Launching: 1917
Builder: Mitsubishi Dockyard & engineering

DEPTH OF SHIP

top of ship: 43 m.
Deck: 50 m.
Bottom 67m

Pictures of the wreck.

Rob enjoying the flatbed truck.

The silt is so fine in these holds and you really have to be careful about disturbing it.The truk touches a grader

as you can see the tracks. It wasnt very photogenic so you have to make do with the truk!

In the main superstructure. Saki bottles and some pots and pans.

July 09 shots

This dive I left Simon to take pictures of the truks and I focused on the other beautiful areas of the Nagano. Cracker wreck!!!

Lamp locker room situated in the main superstructure of the ship on the port door at deck level.

in the main superstructure on the starboard side is a room littered with porcelain. Last year when my zoom ring fell off into my dome port (its like leaving your lense cap on! F*****K) anyway I had a fossick and dug around and uncovered loads of great cups, jars, etc etc. Hid it (not well enough - they were gone!!!!) you can see here all the cups and saucers.

Superstructure looking aft. The trucks are in hold 2 just at the base of the picture.

The top of the reciprocating Oil engine

Bow section of the Nagano. just aft in hold 2 is the trucks!! Awesome sight!!

Simon M playing model to the port side of the superstructure.