r. This was futile and the crew abandoned ship some time after midnight. At about 0530 hours on 18 February 1944, the Fumitsuki sank stern first. She was located to the north-west of Fefan Island and west of the southern end of Moen Island.
|Bruce Graham and the Fumitsuki starboard prop|
Photo by Kelly McFadyen
|The torpedo launcher of the Fumitsuki|
Photo by Kelly McFadyen
The wreck of the Fumitsuki was found in April 1987 by Tomoyuki Yoshimura and Blue Lagoon Dive Shop using Mr Yoshimura's research (war reports and talking to survivors, including the captain).
Today the wreck of the Fumitsuki lies on a sandy bottom at a maximum depth of 36 metres. The wreck is intact but is not really very large. As such, it does not sit high above the bottom. The wreck has a list of 15° or so to port. The superstructure is about 30 metres, the starboard side about 31 metres and the port side a bit deeper at 33 metres. Therefore, this wreck must be done as a first dive as there are no shallow bits.
The first thing you notice as you descend to the wreck is the compact size of the ship. It is narrow, very narrow (less than 10 metres). Starting at the stern, a description of the wreck is as follows. Of the two props, the starboard shows parts of all three blades and the port one only has one blade showing, the rest is buried in the sand. There is very obvious damage to the starboard side of the stern as well as the port side, although the reports state that the bomb near-miss was on the port side. Perhaps this damage is from the stern hitting the bottom when she sank. There is also a hole on the port side from the bomb explosion and damage across the deck. There are depth charges and launchers just back a bit from the stern.
In front of here there are two guns platforms. They originally were both mounted by guns but the rear-most one was removed, presumably in the refit. The remaining gun appears to be identical to the bow gun. In front of the platforms is where the second set of torpedo launchers was mounted. These were removed in the refit but you can see where they were located as the railway tracks used to move the torpedoes across the deck remain visible. All that remains in this spot, apart from the tracks, is empty deck space.
The rear funnel is forward of here and the first section of superstructure. Behind the funnel is a search light platform and in between the funnels there are two machine guns (originally a heavy gun). The forward funnel has fallen over and you can look into the engine room and see two of the four boilers. Alongside the funnel area you can see the apparatus that housed the torpedoes for the forward torpedo launcher (more about this later). The entire bridge area is destroyed, not as one would imagine from a bomb, but just through erosion over the years. This happened in 1988. There is some china in this area as well as some gas masks.
|Two of the shell boxes on the forward gun, |
including an open box showing shells
Photo by Kelly McFadyen
In front of the bridge is the only remaining torpedo launcher. It looks like three huge pipes with a steel wall at one end. The pipes held the torpedoes and the "wall" was a shield for the operators. The launcher could hold three torpedoes, presumably they all had to be loaded facing the shield but this may not have been the case. The launcher was pivoted in the middle and it rotated to port or starboard so that it could fire. The torpedoes were loaded from the rear of the ship.
On the same level as the torpedo launcher is the forecastle. This can be accessed via either of two doors located on each side of the ship. The room is quite open and has a wheel apparatus on the starboard side near the door. There are some hatchways leading to the lower level of the forecastle. You can drop down there but it is very cramped.
Above and in front of the torpedo launcher is the bow. You can see the front gun platform here as well as the main gun. There are some (four I think) shell boxes here as well as some loose shells and free cordite.
The bow is quite interesting. As well as seeing 