The Loss of the S.S. Corregidor

[cbuehler]

Outstanding work here! All of this leads me to wondering what MacArthur knew about the matter. Are there any recorded comments from him at all?

CB

[snake]

The Sea Scan Survey Team dived the Corregidor again on the 5th of April. On arriving at the site, we checked the area for fishing boats due to the threat of dynamite fishing and conditions were the best yet with twenty meters visibility on the way down, reduced to four meters on the bottom. This is good here.
Arriving at the wreck on the first dive, we saw a round object lying flat, it was a porthole ring. We were in the midships area and two explosions were heard during the dive which were distant.
During the surface interval we decided we would raise the porthole ring in the hope that it might have a makers name or mark on it somewhere. It was close to the shot line so would be easy to attach to the weight and pull up with the line after the dive. As the Corregidor was built in Scotland, I'm hoping for a Simpson Lawrence, Glasgow mark.
The video is of the second dive and shows how much fishing line, rope and nets are entangled on the wreck. Small grey and white patches can be seen here and there, these are dead fish killed by an explosion over or near the wreck probably two or three days earlier. At 9:25 into the video, there's a hermit crab feeding on some of them. At 14:55, just after passing a small anchor, there's an explosion that was not only heard but felt followed by another one twenty seconds later, which sounded like a double, followed by a third and slightly lesser one at 16:00. Our boatman hadn't seen any fishing boats under two miles distant so I think these bombs were probably dropped from small fishing bancas off the west coast of Corregidor or La Monja Island as they were close. Probably La Monja as its just over one nautical mile away.
This practice is going on all day, every day, and I'm surprised that there's anything left to blow up!
The following day we planned to do two dives again as conditions were the same with only a minimal increase of 0.2 meters in tidal movement. Visibility on the way down was the same but reduced to zero on the bottom, you just can't pick it here. The dive was aborted and on the way up in mid water we were hit by another loud shaker, the same as the two the previous day. Back on the boat the consensus was "let's get out of here"! 
When I saw the porthole ring last it was partly treated and 24P could be seen stamped on the top of the hinge post. I don't know what that could stand for and I had a quick look around the internet but came up blank. Anyone got any ideas?

The double bollards, or bitts, on the wreck are an interesting style with the tongues (not sure if this is the correct term for them) facing inwards, I've not seen this type before. I searched the internet and only found one example with these facing outward and inline with the bitts. Anyone have knowledge of them? 

In this scan, there does appear to be a break in the hull just behind the superstructure, so perhaps the stern did strike the sea floor first. We will probably never know for sure.

This image is copyright, used by permission of the owner.



Read more: corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1168/loss-corregidor#ixzz47hCnuQmA

[snake]

With the southwest monsoon (Habagat) blowing from June to October, there hasn't been much chance to dive along the western coast. The north easterlies (Amihan) are back and we dived the Corregidor again on November 11th on our way up to Subic Bay. Unfortunately it was late afternoon with some cloud cover, and we knew it would be a bit dark down there but the visibility had been good in other areas so there was a good chance it would be the same here. It was, and with our lights, we could see quite well and there were no "bombs" this time.

I've always been hoping to find some china, or a plate with a company or makers mark on the base, but with the state of the wreck it would be a miracle to find anything intact. I did find what looked like a small plate sticking out of the silt and on removal found it was half a saucer and there was also some other pieces of broken china and a small copper dish with two handles. This was very fragile so it was left there but I brought the other pieces to the surface thinking that there might be a mark on one of them. There was the remains of a tea cup, saucer and one or two dinner plates, and I would say they have come from one of the cabins as they were found in a small area.

We didn't have any luck with the porthole ring, it revealed nothing more than the 24P, and it was the same here. After cleaning, only the very edge of a mark, probably a cartouche, could be seen on one of the pieces of plate. A bit frustrating but that's the nature of wreck diving. I think they might be leaves, and although a long shot, I've been doing some looking on the internet but haven't found anything the same as yet. If anyone can help, please do.  
I doubt if we will get the chance to make a concerted effort to cover the entire wreck in the near future, with the time and expense of getting a team together and the unpredictable conditions, it may not happen soon. But with more interest, somebody here may come forward to fund a week long expedition to explore and film the whole ship and get positive identification.
Wait and see, in the meantime we'll continue to dive it whenever we're passing by.

Broken china from the S.S. Corregidor.



Outer edge of a company or maker's mark. 

[EXO]

Snake,

Quite an eye opener for this non-diver that there is so little remaining of such a sizable wreck. I imagine that it has settled deep into the sediment. Probably the same fate for many of the other wrecks around Corregidor. First to mind is the barge that carried the silver pesos of course.

Thanks for posting.

I am in Manila presently, and will be up Subic way this week, and on Corregidor this weekend.

Paul

[snake]

Thanks Paul, it is buried deep as are some of the wrecks around Subic but I think the Pinatubo eruption in 1991 is responsible for that. It's more likely that the Corregidor has been buried by tidal movement and the muck coming out of Manila Bay, the eruption could also have contributed.

We have scanned about a dozen objects to the west of Corregidor Island and several of them look interesting. We've only dived on one so far which is a small modern tanker near La Monja Island. Next year is shaping up to be quite busy but hopefully we will get the time to have a look at a few more of them.

I didn't know that a barge was lost while dumping the silver pesos, but that was in Caballo Bay at the eastern end of the island wasn't it? The entire area to the south of Corregidor, including Caballo Island, is now a restricted area.

[snake]

I hadn't done anything with the Corregidor for awhile so decided to send away for copies of the U.S.S Mindanao's deck logs to see if there was anything interesting there. On the night of the 16th from 1708, she was anchored one mile north of the safety channel and about one and a half miles east of Alasasin Point, just outside the northern minefield. Mindanao didn't move from here until 0704 the following morning. "Men-of-war" from various units of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet were also present. 

The last entry for the 16th reads: 20-24. Anchored as before. Condition #2, section 1. Turning over main engines every 30 minutes. 2320, S.S. Corregidor (Philippine), standing out. Signaled to heave to. 2325, S.S. Corregidor hove to and drifted out of sight. Continued to signal her to stop but none of the signals were acknowledged in any way.

It appears that Captain Calvo did slow down, almost to a stop, but on realizing that Mindanao wasn't coming out to escort him, sped up again. He had made up his mind to get through and that was that.
There's no mention of the Corregidor in the 17th's deck log, but the anchorage is about four nautical miles from where the ship struck the mine and because Mindanao wasn't involved in the rescue, there would be no reason to mention it.

We attempted to dive the wreck once more in May, but again, the viz on the bottom was zero.

[Howard Hofelich]

I believe the ship went down slightly North of La Monja. Does anyone have any information on any salvage efforts of the wreckage?? Were the minefields ever cleared?? Personally, I think she is still there. A time capsule of raw nerves of the dead trying to escape the Japanese invasion of Manila. Probably alot of women were trying to get out..

[Howard Hofelich]

"24 P" is Portside: 24th Frame. The porthole is marked, in the event of repairs, in the event it is removed, that it can be replaced in its designated hole.

[Howard Hofelich]

USS Mindanao is sunk inside the tadpoles tail.. if you look at an aerial view of Corregidor, it looks like a tadpole. Another ship in there too. Buried in sand all the way up to the gunnels. But the railing is still above the sea bottom.

[Howard Hofelich]

While under repair at Manila on 29 October, Nachi and Kumano were attacked by aircraft from USN Task Force 38. Nachi was hit by a single bomb to her aircraft deck, and this, as well as strafing attacks, killed 53 crewmen and further delayed repairs. On 5 November, again in Manila Bay, Nachi was attacked by three waves of U.S. planes from the aircraft carriers USS Lexington and Ticonderoga. She escaped the first wave undamaged, but was hit by five bombs and two or three torpedoes in the second wave while attempting to get underway. During the third wave, Nachi was hit by five torpedoes in her port side, which severed her bow and stern, and by an additional twenty bombs and 16 rockets. Nachi's flag commander, Vice Admiral Kiyohide Shima, was ashore for a conference at the time of the attack, but arrived at dockside in time to watch in horror as his flagship was blown apart. The central portion of the vessel sank in approximately 102 feet (31 m) of water at (14°31′N 120°44′ECoordinates: 14°31′N 120°44′E),[6] 12 nautical miles (22 km) northeast of Corregidor.

The original wartime caption of a picture taken of the sinking Nachi by Lexington aircraft reads,
“ Note by target coordinator: We circled down to 20 feet to make sure there were absolutely no survivors. Fifteen or twenty oily figures were served with .50-caliber just to make sure.[7] ”

Of the crew, 807 were lost, including the captain, while 220 survived and were rescued by the destroyers Kasumi and Akebono.
Wreck
In April and May 1945, divers from USS Chanticleer made 296 dives on the wreck, salvaging radar equipment, code books, maps of Japanese fortifications on Luzon and other documents. John Prados, in his book, Combined Fleet Decoded, writes that this was a major intelligence coup. This is also verified by U.S. Navy Master Diver Joseph S. Karneke, who served as the master diver aboard Chanticleer while diving on the wreck of Nachi, in his book, Navy Diver.