Caballo Island Offshore

[fots2]

In August I took some photos of Caballo Island (Fort Hughes) as we passed by the eastern tip of it. Since this island under Philippine Navy control and still used as an ordinance magazine, visiting there is not easy thing to do. There are not a lot of recent photos online so I thought you may be interested in seeing them.

Unfortunately this is the closest that I have been to Caballo Island. Someday I hope…

These photos were taken during a trips from Corregidor to Fort Drum one day and an ‘attempted’ trip to Fort Frank the next day. ‘Attempted’ in that we got 2/3 of the way there and the banca’s engine quit. The tide was going out and we drifted a long way towards the South China Sea before a rescue boat came to tow us back to Corregidor. Thankfully the cell phone signal was strong enough for us to text for help or we would be eating Vietnamese food the next day (if we were lucky).

First, here are two aerial views of Caballo Island. Corregidor Island is in the background. (The eastern tip is to the far right of the photos).









A view of Caballo Island taken from Corregidor Island. At the far side of Manila Bay is the province of Cavite.



As we came around the eastern tip of Corregidor Island, you can see Caballo Island in the distance.












At the beach towards the left, notice the turret of a Sherman tank that did not make it ashore in 1945.






The same tank can also be seen here.









A boat came from Corregidor and threw us a line. After a few minutes on the way back, I was bored so I took a couple photos of our destination on the horizon.

While we were waiting for rescue in our dead banca, a little bird landed up on the bow. It was obviously exhausted and lost being so far from land.





About half way back to Corregidor, it took off and flew in the wrong direction towards the open ocean. Someone saw it hit the water shortly after so unfortunately I think the little guy never made it. As a tribute to it and all other feathered friends, I had chicken for dinner. ;D



Corregidor getting closer



A big fishing banca close to Corregidor



After that trip, a stop the Bottomside Church might have been a good idea. However the day was not a write-off. I spent the afternoon exploring the G1 Command Post and the Mile Long Barracks.

Just another day on “The Rock”.

[batteryboy]

One of these days fots, I promise to bring you to Caballo Island

Battery Boy

[okla]

hey fots....many thanks for a new fots fantastic foto tour. its been several days and i think i was beginning to detect "withdrawal" pangs. fort hughes, for most of us statesiders, i fear is somewhat of an unknown quantity. of course, everybody knows about fort drum (concrete battleship,etc and all that good stuff), but hughes and fort frank are not as reknowned. i heard/read,etc somewhere way back in the distant, misty past that dependents, pre-war, were housed on hughes as they were on corregidor. do you (or any of our resident gurus) know if this is a fact or not. i do know that forts frank and drum were "stag", but i have the impression that dependents were allowed to reside on hughes. it would appear that it was large enough to have the facilities/etc that would be required for wives and young 'uns. this is obviously not the case in the other two smaller forts. just another little tidbit that crops up on occasion to "bug" me. thanks for another enlightening tour. they keep my interest tweaked and "withdrawal" manageable. postscript....you did come out of the "high water" okay. right? hope things are beginning to shape up in the PI as we speak. one more thing....just think, if you guys had not been able to get a tow back to the bay, you might have become residents of "china beach" over in nam. cant imagine what fots fantastic foto tours would be like originating from the people's republic of vietnam.

[okla]

hey fots....i have one more thing. i was showing wife the lastest fots foto tour of fort hughes and we both being catholic, i certainly wanted to show her the pic of the chapel at bottomside. i made a grieviousl error in showing her the shots of the little bird and the accompanying narrative. she was depressed when she got to the part about it crashing at sea. now see what you have done?

[fots2]

Hi okla,

Fortunately there was no problem where I live with flooding. Apparently drainage is very poor in the lowest lying areas of Laguna and it is estimated by the government that some areas will not be flood free until Christmas.

Vietnam does sound interesting but I would prefer to get there quickly by airplane. That would be a whole lot more fun than our method.

Sorry I can’t answer your question about pre-war dependants. I looked at the map I have but the small legend does not list barracks at all.

Yes, too bad about the bird. We made him an honorary crew member but unfortunately he decided jumped ship.

Here are a few more photos of the chapel at Bottomside. It is located east of the Corregidor Inn which is at the top of the hill.

[fots2]

I appreciate that batteryboy, I look forward to the trip.

[batteryboy]

Oct 8, 2009 16:14:04 GMT 8 fots2 said:

I appreciate that batteryboy, I look forward to the trip.

I might go there on April 2010 so I will keep you posted.

Hey Okla, I will PM you offline. Got some questions that I think you might be able to help me out.

Cheers,

[okla]

hey batts....will be most happy to answer any questions you might have, but cant imagine being privy to any info that you dont have. you guys know and probably have forgotten more about the "rock" (and bataan) than i ever knew in the first place. anyhow, would be delighted to help if possible.

[okla]

hey fots...one more query about the corregidor chapel. do you know if the chapel is a renovated/repro/etc of the prewar structure or was the present church constructed from scratch in the years following 1945??? forgive me for bugging you about such trivial, minute things, but as you surely know by now, i am a corregidor/bataan geek. i will never consider myself as knowing TOO much about the "rock".

[fots2]

No problem okla, I don’t know a real lot about the chapel but I’ll give you what I can.

There have been at least three chapels/churches on Bottomside.
1 - one (and probably more) from Spanish times up to World War II.
2 - one post war and up until the current one was built.
3 - the current chapel we see now.

I found on the internet where the name of it is St. Joseph. The 1921 map shows a church at the same location of the present day one. The 1932 map shows a larger building in the same location as the 1921 map. Not much had changed there by the time the 1935 map was created. Photos taken during the 1945 invasion show the church was totally destroyed.



This photo (looking north) taken during the February 1945 invasion, shows the pre-war chapel totally destroyed. (the black area at the bottom is the shadow of the trolley bridge. Just above it to the right was the location of the chapel).


One thing my searches have not found an answer to is when was the current chapel built. Earlier this year I walked around the church looking for a plaque or even some text in the concrete foundation and found nothing. Inside I saw nothing either. My best guess is that this chapel was built as part of CFI’s projects to prepare the island for tourists in the 1970s or 80s. Anyone know?

I have never seen a photo of the pre-war chapel so I have no idea what it looked like.




This 1956 photo shows the first post war chapel in very good shape so maybe it was constructed around then. The main door faced west where in the current one, it faces north.




This 1967 photo shows the same chapel in poor condition. (above the chapel is the Malinta Tunnel west entrance)




This photo also taken in 1967 shows detail of the poor condition of the chapel then.


Here is something that may interest you. One of the grounds keepers told me that earlier this year, the area east of the chapel was cleaned out very well and they found a buried cement emblem (or whatever you would call it). I forget exactly but it is roughly a foot and a half square.

It has two big angels on each side and in the middle is a small angel on top of a bell.

They cleaned it off and although it has some damage, it looks not too bad. Considering where they found it, it is probably from one of the earlier churches.





That is all the info I have okla. If anyone can add more, please do so.