In the diving world, Chuuk Lagoon is considered the gold standard of wreck diving. During World War II, Chuuk was the base of operations for the Japanese military. They fortified the island with bunkers and armaments that still litter the island. The deep, natural harbors also served well as the holding area for the Japanese Navy. In fact, the islands were so well defended that the allied forces called it \u201cThe Gibraltar of the Pacific.\u201d That was until 1944 when American forces spent three\u00a0days bombing the bejesus out of them. The Americans literally sank Japan\u2019s battleship.\u00a0They actually sank 12 warships, 32 merchant ships, and about 275 aircrafts. All that makes Chuuk Lagoon the largest shipwreck graveyard in the world!\u00a0It\u2019s a wreck divers’ dream.<\/p>\n
![\"Turtle](\"http:\/\/archives.theguamguide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/louise.jpg\")
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Personally, I am not that into wrecks, I\u2019m more of a reef and sea life diver, so I was a bit skeptical\u00a0of the whole thing. I went along with it figuring, at worst, it would add something of the exotic to my dive log. However, I could not have been more mistaken. From the moment I slipped into the warm tropical waters and looked down at the massive foredeck of a huge battleship, I was enthralled. I was literally staring history in the face. The ship looked like it could have gone down no more then 10 minutes before my arrival, but there is was, like a time capsule from the past, sitting upright. The full size of the ship was lost on me, the deep blue darkness cut the great ship in half, leaving my imagination to fill in the details. There were small signs of the ocean laying claim to what was now hers. Small outcroppings of colorful corals dotted the decks and the rigging was swarmed by myriads of little darting fish.<\/p>\n
What really caught my attention, and nearly brought me to tears, were the signs of the lives that had been there before. The proverbial footsteps of those who had called this ship home. There were bits of broken crockery, a few fragments of what was once a lovely blue China tea set. I half expected a Japanese sailor to come bustling out of the hold to sweep up the mess his afternoon tea had made. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t help but think about all the untold stories that this beautiful boat held within her.<\/p>\n
![\"Micronesia](\"http:\/\/archives.theguamguide.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/fish-white-bubbles.jpg\")
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We dove three\u00a0wrecks that day \u2013 two\u00a0massive warships and one smaller aircraft. Each one was hauntingly eerie, but also astonishingly beautiful in its nearly perfect preserved state.<\/p>\n
PHOTO SOURCE: Ernie Collier<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"