A Story Of A Sunken Ship You Can Vsit

Hell Ships of WWII

December 13, 1944, the former Japanese luxury liner the Oryoku Maru left Manila enroute to Japan with 4 merchant ships.

Suddenly fighters from the USS Hornet screamed down out of the sky. Japanese soldiers and civilians scrambled for cover as machine gunners on the decks of the Oryoku Maru desperately tried to fend off the attack. Only lasting a few minutes the attack left the Oryoku Maru in a fragile position with hundreds of Japanese dead or wounded.

It wasn’t until the war was over that the real tragedy of the attack was discovered. Crammed below decks into 3 filthy, steamed holds were 1,619 American and allied prisoners, over 100 died in the attack that day.

With a severely damaged steering gear the Oryoku Maru limped into Subic Bay. The next morning American planes had once again found the wounded Oryoku Maru and began the attacking approach, it wasn’t until the surviving American and allied prisoners raced across the decks wildly waving their arms, that the pilots recognized the white figures as Americans and sharply pulled out of the attack, rocking their wings in recognition and flew off.

The 1,350 surviving prisoners were then forced to strip off and swim ashore and locked in a fenced tennis court near The Spanish Gate.

The next morning 3 fighters appeared over the now abandoned ship and scored 2 direct hits, after burning steadily for 2 hours she settled into the water approx 100 yards off Alava Pier.