Akitsushima

Most of Coron's wrecks were freighters and tankers; the Akitsushima was a true warship, and she looks it. Commissioned in 1942, she was built for a single specialized job — tending the enormous Kawanishi flying boats that scouted the Pacific for the fleet, hoisting them from the water with the great crane that still dominates her stern. Withdrawn to Coron Bay with the auxiliary fleet in September 1944, she fought back when the carrier strike arrived on the 24th and was hit hard; explosions tore her and she rolled onto her port side as she sank, taking a substantial part of her crew. There was no flying boat aboard, and divers still reflexively look for one under the fallen crane. She offers Coron's most warship-flavored diving: anti-aircraft mounts, a fire-director platform, and an engine room that has become one of the Philippines' best-known technical penetrations. Her dead deserve the same quiet owed to any wreck where sailors remain.

How she sank: Sunk by US carrier aircraft in the Coron Bay raid, 24 September 1944.

Condition: Coherent and recognizably a warship, with battle damage readable amidships; steel is thinning and some interior spaces are shedding structure.

Penetration: Full With Training. The engine room is a serious, silty, rotated-geometry penetration for trained wreck or technical divers; the open crane and deck areas suit everyone else. Entering any overhead environment requires specific training — a wreck certification at minimum, technical wreck training for full penetration.

Recommended certification: Advanced Open Water; wreck/technical training for the interior

Current: Mild · Visibility: 5–15 m

Marine life: Barracuda school off the crane, batfish drift along the hull, crocodilefish and scorpionfish blend into the plating, and black corals feather the shaded side.

Hazards: Silt, sharp wreckage, and depth on the seabed side; low visibility periods after wind.

Protected wartime wreck; Coron local dive fees apply.

Crew members were lost aboard — dive her with restraint even though she is not formally designated a war grave.

Weapons fittings and personal-scale objects alike stay untouched.