Ship History
The ship carries a #4 in white on the stack.

Sinking History
A wartime photo shows it under attack September 27, 1943. Sunk by air attack in Victoria Bay. This ship suffered extensive burning prior to sinking.

Shipwreck
Rests on a 18m sandy bottom, with its stern missing, and has not been found. The bow section is 25m long, with an anchor still attached, hanging down to the sand.

Justin Taylan adds:
"Locals refer to this wreck as Musao Maru, and charge 5 Kina per diver. It appears the wreck was salvaged post war. The propeller is missing, and appears that it might have had salvage done on it. The remains of the kingpost is present, but collapsed into the wreck."

Ken Howard adds:
"I can't compare this Maru to other PNG wrecks, but it was certainly one of the highlights of our 12 days of diving from Madang to Wewak, and ranks up there (photographically). The viz wasn't all that great (maybe 50 feet)--despite this wreck's size, you had to start down the line attached to the marker buoy because you couldn't spot the wreck from the surface. I was first in the water on both dives, and as I mentioned didn't venture inside the wreck. The second (bow) dive had noticeably worse viz, after the other eleven divers had been in the water. Water conditions were calm, however."

References
X Marks The Spot research by David Pennefather

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