Intro
I knew it would take about an hour to get the photos I needed for a photogrammetry model of the Mavis, but most wreck divers don’t want to spend an hour on an airplane. I was fortunate to be diving with Aron / Dirty Dozen and we had an afternoon with nothing specific scheduled so I requested to dive the Mavis. I’m a self-admitted underwater airplane enthusiast.
I had arranged to go in with the first group and have a “hand-off” to the other groups once they were bored with the wreck. This would allow me to always have a buddy underwater and I was fortunate to have other divers that supported my desire to build a photogrammetry model of this wreck.
The “Mavis”
The Kanawashi H6K was a floatplane (aka flying boat) that was used during World War II for a variety of purposes, including reconnaissance, transport, bombing, naval warfare, and executive transport. Most variants of he aircraft were powered by 4 x 14 cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines and combat versions had 4 x Type 92 machine guns but could also carry two torpedoes or 1000kg of bombs.
It generally had a crew of 9 people, a length of 84 feet and a wingspan of 130 feet.
The equivalent US airplane was the PBY Catalina; however, the Mavis was superior to the Catalina in most respects and could carry a larger payload.
The Wreck
There are a number of Mavis airplane wrecks in and around the Solomon Islands. There was a Japanese seaplane base near Tulagi on Florida Island in the Solomons so it makes sense that there are quite a few Mavis wrecks there. The Mavis seaplanes that were based in Tulagi were used for reconnaissance purposes (vs anti-submarine or other duties) and there were 7 of them moored when we conducted an airstrike. According to Neil Yates, of the 7 Mavis airplanes, only 4 have anything left that is worth diving.
I don’t know of any other location in the world where you can dive a Mavis so it is a unique opportunity.
The picture below is from Michael McFadyen’s site and show a number of Mavis airplanes at anchor at Tanabogo Island.
Because I wanted to create a photogrammetry model, we dove the wreck that was more intact. Most of the airplane we dove is still there. The only major section missing is the starboard side wing past the inboard of the two engines. You can actually see the inboard engine falling away from the wing towards the front of the wreck and then nothing exists past that. You can also inside most portions of the wreck including the cockpit and radio operators area.
The wreck is “embedded” into the rock and coral at the end of the port side wing. If you look closely, you can see a barrel sponge on the inboard port side prop!
Photos
These photos are a few of the interesting parts of the wreck. Note that these are photos that were used in building the photogrammetry model so they weren’t necessarily taken for composition, centering, etc. Also, there was a lot of particulate matter in the water which you can see in the photos.
Cockpit Area
Engines
Note the barrel sponge on the inboard port side prop (lower photo) and also the starboard engine / prop that has collapsed down (upper left photo).
Rear Tail Area
Various Fuselage Areas
Photogrammetry Model
I took almost 2,000 pictures during the hour that I was on the wreck. The visibility was good but not great. The one section I didn’t get a chance to really cover is the underside of the port side wing. Also, there were some fragments of that wing “hanging down” which made complete coverage of the port side of the fuselage tough. However, you can definitely get a sense of the aircraft from the model.
Desktop Version
Mobile Phone Version
Below are screenshots from the model
References
Neil Yates Word Document “Wrecks of Iron Bottom Sound”
Dived this site the week after you – the visibility was similar, but a great wreck at a reasonable depth, so easy to get a look at everything.
Thanks for reading and commenting, John. Glad you got to dive it. It is a pretty cool plane.