Jake Seaplane

Not every wreck needs a battle. The Jake — American reporting name for the Aichi E13A, Japan's workhorse three-seat reconnaissance floatplane — sits upright on a rubble slope in barely fifteen meters of water near Koror, and nobody is certain how it got there. The type entered service in 1941 and flew everywhere the navy went, catapulted from cruisers and staged from island anchorages like Palau. This airframe shows no convincing battle scars, so the guesses run to a botched takeoff, a sinking at its mooring, or abandonment during the 1944 raids. A local fisherman led divers to it in 1994, and it has since become Palau's favorite between-reef dive: a nearly whole aircraft, wings level, the long greenhouse canopy open to the light, propeller blades softened by coral. It photographs like a model on a shelf. Ten minutes of bottom time tell the whole story; the mystery is the part you take home.

How she sank: Unknown — lost during the Pacific war, with no obvious combat damage; a failed takeoff or mooring loss is commonly suggested.

Condition: Exceptionally complete for an aluminum airframe eighty years down, though fragile — the metal flexes and every careless touch costs it.

Penetration: None. The cockpit is far too small and fragile to enter; view it from outside — fins and cameras have already scarred the canopy rails.

Recommended certification: Open Water

Current: Mild · Visibility: 8–18 m

Marine life: Cardinalfish shelter in the fuselage, corals bead the floats and struts, and octopus and gobies work the surrounding rubble.

Hazards: Shallow boat traffic; monofilament around the site; the temptation to touch a structure that cannot bear it.

Protected as a Palauan historic site; dive with a licensed operator.

Nothing may be removed, and nothing should be moved for a photograph.