The BentProp Project

2013 BentProp Progress Report # 3

P-MAN XV Update #3 - An underwater find. Not quite American.

16 March

First day of searching and collaborating with Eric Terrill and his Scripps team. The plan was to get all of our scuba gear ready, meet at The Coral Reef Research Foundation and head out on their boat. Of course winds and tide don't always cooperate so the morning plan switched to us staying back and reviewing sonar and video data and maybe go out in the late afternoon. Then it switched again to us going out in the late morning. Semper Gumby: Forever Flexible.

So off we headed into Malakal Harbor.

Shannon

Ian

Dan, embedded reporter with Scripps

Eric wanted a sonar image of the bottom along the southern area of the harbor where a lot of ships were at anchor during the war. Then we would go out of the claw entrance of the harbor and into Western Lagoon where we know many many ships were at anchorage and a number of airplanes were shot down. Last year, in just a blink of an eye, Scripps recorded an image of a man made object that we could convince ourselves was off of a B-24. We knew that BentProp had many years of side scanning sonar work to do just to see what was on the bottom in Western Lagoon. Scripps, with all their cool technologies, is almost done with the initial scans. Of course someone has to review all this data and we're just the guys to do it. But not today.

The imagery found a bottom feature that looked like an airplane. So down Scripps went and lo and behold, it was an airplane.

Image of aircraft, without engine, AND three divers. Blue spots are the 'divers' and black plumes are their air bubbles.

It was so murky that no picture does this airplane justice.

Our initial feel before we went diving was that it was an OS2U Kingfisher. But upon further investigations, it's clear that the aircraft is not even American. The Japanese machine gun sticking out of the rear cockpit is one clue. So is the geometry of the leading edge of the wing and the front cockpit and the rear canopy and fuselage relationship. This wreck is in about 100 feet of water, in a murky bottom (This is in the same general area where we dropped in last year and 10 feet from the bottom I disappeared from view from Pat and Derek.) and has a good crop of six foot long black coral strands growing all over it.

The airplane is sitting upright on the bottom, the engine is about 50 meters away and so is something that looks suspiciously like a large pontoon for a float plane. The Japanese made extensive use of floatplanes in this theater of the war and you can see a number of them touring around Palau. The famous "Jake" wreck north of Arakabesan (a popular sport-diving spot here in Palau) is one type of seaplane the Japanese used. This aircraft is not a Jake. So when we have some free time, we'll sort through our recognition materials and figure this out. It will also be fun reading the After Action Reports (AARs) of the U.S. squadrons to see if we can figure out how this airplane ended up where it did and who did it. The plane does have a number of bullet holes in it.

Gratuitous shot of Flip and Pat. Flip took the photo,
but looks like he's seeing an underwater camera for the very first time.

It rained most of today's trip so it was a bit chilly on the surface with the wind. It felt warmer in the water than out.

Back to port, unloaded the boat and put our gear back into storage at Neco Marine. Got cleaned up and headed out to dinner with the Scripps crew. Sunday is Saint Patty's day and Kraemers is closed. So a day early, they put out green beer for everyone!

Early to bed for everyone and I'm actually starting to convert to this time zone. I slept in until 0530.

17 March

Happy Saint Patty's Day!!

We tried Bacon-Flavored Spam for the first time today. It was great! You all know that I love Spam, but my teammates may not have the same affinity. But under Dan's instigation, I bought Bacon Spam along with Regular Spam. The taste is really nice, a bit smoky and just a tad less sharp than regular Spam. My teammates have given me hope about their food choices.

Today, we reviewed recognition books to try to determine what yesterday's aircraft find is. We have a pretty strong feeling about this, but it's not 100% certain so we're not going to speculate publicly. A couple of piece-parts on the airplane don't match up to our books.

We also spent a few hours over in the Scripps area looking at side-scan sonar images. They are doing scans of the areas we think have a high probability of having an aircraft there. So far, none of the 'things of interest' appears to be an airplane.

Lew met up with Sebastian tonight. Sebastian is a Delegate to the national government of Palau and he and Lew met via a mutual friend. Sebastian brought Jonathan, the Delegate from Peleliu, to meet Lew. They've made plans to tour a bit of Palau tomorrow after our meeting at the Bureau of Arts and Culture.

Lew and the members of Palau's Congress had dinner at The Drop Off, and so did we. The grilled blackjack was wonderful tonight.

This report is a bit thin and I did not take any photos today. Tomorrow, I should do better.

So I might as well get some lessons learned in:

1) Zippers really do work better in the tropics if they're stored for a year lubed up.

2) It is 'The GoPro Generation'. Everything is recorded with Scripps around.

3) Maple Syrup (the real stuff) may store for a year and look edible, but you shouldn't.

4) The old saw is to never shop when you're hungry because you put too much stuff in the cart. The opposite is if you're sated, you forget too much.

5) Young and old still gravitate to this story.

18 March

I may actually be on the correct time zone now. Early to bed and up at 0530 for the second day in a row. Just think how much more I can accomplish by "early to bed, early to rise." I hope I get over this when I get back home.

We had a 9 a.m. meeting at The Bureau of Arts and Culture with Director Dwight Alexander and archaeologist Suzanne Finney. This was our formal signing ceremony for our permits and annual picture-taking event. We had Eric Terrill along as Scripps is such a big portion of our mission this year. He was also able to tell BAC what he is able to do for them with all of the technologies he's brought with him both on land and sea.

We now have our marching orders from The Director, so off we went to dive the Corsair and B-24.

Right now I'm sure you're thinking, 'hey, shouldn't they be looking for new stuff instead of revisiting the known stuff?' Eric and crew brought with them technology for virtual preservation of important sites, and they are trying to capture 3d digital imagery of the Corsair and B-24. This will allow them to see how the wrecks change over time. The Corsair hasn't been touched since we last saw it, but does show a little more coral growth. The B-24 is being overtaken by coral, collapsing in on itself and might disappear from view in five years.

Pat, briefing the mission