The Fumitzuki went down in the western part of the lagoon. The wreck is not in any of the anchorages and it's a minor expedition to dive the Fumitzuki . The other wrecks in the western part of the lagoon are the Hanakawa Maru and the Shinkoku Maru. Since all three of these wrecks are excellent dives, our group was ready to go. Initially, however, the wind was up and we didn't want to go out to the unprotected wrecks in the little Blue Lagoon dive boats.

 
The Fumitzuki was the second ship of the Mutsuki class. Here's the type ship, Mutsuki, underway. Fumitzuki was identical

Fumitzuki was an old ship by the time the war started and according to her TROM she spent the majority of her time in escort duties. When the war began, she escorted the invasion forces to the Philippines, then she spent the better part of 1942 as part of the "Tokyo Express", under the brilliant Admiral Tanaka Raizo. The Tokyo Express worked miracles landing men and supplies to Guadalcanal, and then pulled another rabbit out of a hat by evacuating the men who survived. The Fumitzuki was in the thick of things througout the entire Solomons campaign.

By the end of 1943, though, time was running out for Fumitzuki. She was damaged near Kavieng, New Ireland, not far from the Solomons. The Japanese base at Rabaul was the closest repair facility, but Rabaul was under almost daily attack by then, so Fumitzuki made her way to Truk. When Truk came under attack, she was riding her anchor in the repair anchorage. She was patched up enough to get underway on one engine and her skipper tried to put some distance between her and the worst part of the attack. She was caught, however, and sunk before she got more than a few miles.

Click Here to Swim Back to Truk

Click here to Go Home