History at 52 meters deep: The shipwrecks of Malapascua

A mysterious shipwreck lying 52 meters deep just off Cebu’s Malapascua Island was identified by the ‘Born to be Wild’ team last June 2012. Guest host Mariz Umali and a team of expert divers traveled to Malapascua with the task of filming and identifying shipwrecks in the area, which were reportedly unnamed and being illegally salvaged for their steel.   Two of the three wrecks initially found were already salvaged, making identification near impossible. However, one lying deep at 52 meters remained intact.   The wreck, known as Pioneer, was named after the M/V Pioneer Cebu, a passenger ship that was reportedly sunk during 1966. But some local divers who have been to the wreck doubt the ship to be the M/V Pioneer, instead guessing it to be the Mogami Maru, a World War II Japanese sub chaser which was sunk in 1944 somewhere in Malapascua after being bombed with torpedoes. Footage of the wreck was shown to Bobby Orillaneda, the National Museum’s Underwater Archeologist, who confirmed that the wreck did not look like a passenger ship.  “Unang kita ko pa lang and from the growth of the corals mukhang World War II ship ito,” Orillaneda relates. Footage was also shown to Ricardo Jose, History professor at the University of the Philippines - Diliman, who also said significant parts of the damage ship were “more likely [to have been] bombed.”   The Born to be Wild researchers tried to secure archival photos of M/V Pioneer Cebu and Mogami Maru to match it with a diver’s sketch of the wreck. M/V Pioneer Cebu’s photo lacked a forecastle and had more masts in its bow compared to the sketch.   A photo of Tokachi Maru, an exact replica and sister vessel of the Mogami Maru, was secured from Japan’s Museum of Maritime Science; Professor Jose identified it to be an exact match to the wreck’s sketch and videos.   As Orillaneda shared, it is important to identify shipwrecks as soon as possible so as not to forget their part in history. All shipwrecks are finite, and deteriorate exponentially; if unidentified, the great monuments will be lost for all time. - Annalyn Ardoña