Rio de Janeiro Maru

The Rio de Janeiro Maru was built in 1930 for the OSK line's emigrant route to South America, a motor liner named for her destination port. The navy took her in 1940, used her first as a submarine tender and then as a transport, and Hailstone's bombers found her at Truk in February 1944; she absorbed her damage slowly and went down quietly the next morning, rolling onto her starboard side on a sandy bottom. She is a dive of oversized details. Her port hull, now the wreck's upper surface, is a field of plating within easy reach of the surface; at the stern, her big twin screws stand in the blue like monuments; and in the aft holds sit crates of beer bottles by the thousand, stacked as the stevedores left them. A stern gun still points at nothing. Like every ship of the Hailstone fleet, she carried men who did not get off, and divers treat her accordingly.

Con tàu đã chìm như thế nào: Bombed on 17 February 1944 during Operation Hailstone; sank in the early hours of the following day.

Điều kiện: Coherent and stable, with the gradual sagging of a large hull lying on its side for eighty years.

Lặn xâm nhập: Full With Training. Hold entries are broad and forgiving by lagoon standards, but the rotated interior still calls for wreck training and a guide who knows the exits. Khi lặn vào bất kỳ môi trường trần kín nào đều yêu cầu huấn luyện chuyên biệt — ít nhất là chứng chỉ lặn xác tàu, và huấn luyện xác tàu kỹ thuật cho việc thâm nhập hoàn toàn.

Chứng chỉ được khuyến nghị: Advanced Open Water; wreck training for interiors

Dòng chảy: Mild · Tầm nhìn: 15–30 m

Sinh vật biển: Hard corals pave the upturned hull, sweetlips and snappers gather at the stern, and turtles are regular visitors along the rail.

Nguy hiểm cần lưu ý: Silt in the holds, collapsing internal fittings, and glass and cargo that must be left undisturbed.

Chuuk lagoon monument protection; state dive permit/fee applies.

A war grave of the February 1944 raid; conduct inside the hull should honor that.

The famous bottles stay in their crates — removal is illegal.