Dive Site - HIJMS Nagato
| Dive Site - HIJMS Nagato | |||
| Dive Location: | City / Island: | ||
| HIJMS Nagato | Bikini Atoll | ||
| Country: | Rating: | Max. Depth: | Difficulty: |
| Marshall Islands |  |
55 m | Advanced Open Water plus Deep |
| Aquatic Name: | Water: | Altitude: | |
| - | Salt | 0 m | |
| GPS Latitude: | GPS Longitude: | GPS Datum: | |
| 11° 36.685′ N 11.611417° N 11° 36′ 41.1″ N |
165° 29.553′ E 165.49255° E 165° 29′ 33.18″ E |
Google Map | WGS84 |
| 5 dives at this location: | |||
| 364 | 372 | 410 | 416 | 422 | |||
| Map: | |||
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| The hulking black battleship HIJMS Nagato was a steel-hulled vessel 221 metres (725 feet) long and weighed 32,720 standard tons. At the time of her completion in 1920, she was the world's largest warship and the first battleship in the world to mount 410 mm (16 inch) guns. Nagato was the Japanese flagship of the Japanese Navy, and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's floating fortress battleship during Japan's World War II attack on Pearl Harbour. Each high-level Japanese bomber aircraft at Perl Harbour carried only one bomb, a nearly one-ton projectile constructed from the 16-inch shells of the Nagato, designed to penetrate the thick deck armour of U.S. battleships. One of the 16-inch shells sank the battleship Arizona, together with more than 1,200 of the 1,400 men on board, thereby accounting for nearly half the deaths at Perl Harbour. The Nagato was the only Japanese battleship or carrier not sunk in World War II. On 30 August 1945, a special U.S. ceremonial detail took over the ship and hauled down her flag to symbolise the unconditional surrender of the Japanese Navy. The strange-looking, pergoda-like battleship Nagato and the Japanese cruiser Sakawa were the most detested ships moored in Bikini Lagoon. One observer described her as the "stinkingest, filthiest place you could imagine." She survived the Test Able air atomic bomb blast on 1 July 1946, though her wooden deck was burning slowly. The mines strapped to her deck were unexploded. The Nagato took on a list after the Test Baker underwater atomic bomb blast on 25 July 1946, and eventually capsized and sank four days later. She is upside down in 55 metres of water, and it is an incredible dive. Her four massive screws appear like an underwater Stonehenge. The imposing 16-inch guns can be seen when you dive her. See also: HIJMS Nagato - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIJMS_Nagato Operation Crossroads - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Crossroads |
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