THE Talomo Shelf off southern Davao City is turning up new revelations what many residents have suspected all along: a ship wreckage, possibly of warplanes, too, courtesy of the final battle in the Davao Gulf during the Second World War.

The discovery of three or four Japanese warplanes spanning more than two decades have sparked suspicion among residents of coastal barangay Talomo, 10 km west of downtown Davao City, that the Talomo waters could have been the scene of bitter sea battles between retreating Japanese imperial forces and the US Navy in 1944 or 1945.

It cannot be far-fetched, though. Leyte Gulf in Eastern Visayas has etched its name history as the scene of the fiercest naval battles in the Second World War in the ending days of the war. War memoirs of that bloody naval engagement had pointed to a continuing battle down the Surigao Strait and the entire eastern coast of Mindanao, where the Davao Gulf connects to the south.

A group of foreign divers interested in sunken ships elsewhere had made an initial dive exploration at the wreckage some years back, but Department of Tourism Director Sonia Garcia said the divers were unable to take substantive photographs of what is underneath.

A second attempt at exploring it was already finalized to take place early this month, still by a group of technical divers, to make a thorough documentation of the wreckage.

At a depth of 200 feet, the untouched sunken warship could provide an interesting attraction for Davao City.

“At only about 15 minutes from downtown, you can already reach Talomo and in a few minutes, you are there underneath the waters relishing the past war,” Garcia said.

She said the sunken warship may be a US warship, or even a Japanese ship.

An account of a local diver and an underwater photographer, Carlos R. Munda Jr., which he posted in an Internet web site, has this version of that wreckage:

“But more than just battles between whole navies, there are also little-known dramas among individual vessels that in themselves make for some very interesting sea stories—and, for the intrepid wreck diver, amazing dive experiences.

“One such is the tale of the USS Seawolf and the Sagami Maru. Launched in 1939 from the opposite ends of the Pacific, their saga continued through several encounters, finally ending violently in the Davao Gulf.

“The first encounter between the two ships occurred on February 19, 1942, just off the Badung Strait. Lt. Cdr. Frederick B. Warder onboard the Seawolf sighted the Sagami and went in for a surface attack. After firing two torpedoes and missing, the hunter fast became the hunted and, in the ensuing melee, the Sagami was able to make good her escape.

“Nine months later, the day of November 3, 1942, was dawning bright over the Davao Gulf when once again Lt. Cmdr. Warder was peering through his periscope at a Japanese prize that had escaped him once before—the Sagami Maru.

“The attack began with Warder’s first of three torpedo runs. Approaching from the surface, he was met with a hale of fire from the Japanese deck guns. Despite the danger, the Seawolf pressed on, sending several more ‘fishes’ into the Sagami which finally silenced her guns and critically wounded her. Soon, the Japanese flags that just that morning flew atop the ship’s masts were down—marking the end of a worthy ship.”

Munda’s account tells of the Sagami Maru, “once the pride of the Nippon Yushen Keisha [NYK] Shipping Line of Japan, [which] had a crew of 68 and silk-lined rooms for VIP passengers.”

“At her prime, gleaming china and silverware carrying the flag and life-preserver logo of the NYK Line symbolized the civilian affluence to which the ship was born. In death, it was her new adornment of guns and war paint that those who saw her last remembered.”

For tourism, the untouched wreckage presents a variation in the many attractions of Davao City and the rest of the Davao Region, packaged in the tourism brochures as an experience “of the islands to the highlands.”

“Wreck diving has a niche market, usually attracting those who want more adventures or discoveries in the depths,” she said. “The wreckage has been there; there had been no attempts to salvage that ship.”

Heavy siltation around the coast of Davao City may blur the underwater scenery, though, but Garcia said the entire wreck is visible.

The Talomo Shelf is part of the entire promontory of Mount Apo, the country’s highest peak, down to the Davao Gulf, currently appraised as a rich marine biodiverse area.

In the same account, Munda said of the sunken ship:

“On the Sagami [Maru], the delights, just as the dangers, begin topside and are multiplied as one penetrates deeper into the ship.

“Heavily silted, the visibility can go from a few feet to zero in seconds. Outside the ship, one can usually spot the huge turtle that makes its home near the bow and the school of dogtooth tunas that now circle the mast once topped by the rising sun. Within its holds, under 300 feet of water, the trucks and motorcycles await to be unloaded and her galley floor is littered with porcelain dinnerware and amber beer bottles now buried in decades’ worth of fine mud.”

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Intact WW2 ship wreckage presents new Davao attraction

THE Talomo Shelf off southern Davao City is turning up new revelations what many residents have suspected all along: a ship wreckage, possibly of warplanes, too, courtesy of the final battle in the Davao Gulf during the Second World War.