Wreck of the Araosan Maru | Technical Diving in Thailand

Eastern Route

Image: Japanese Line Drawing of the Araosan Maru

One of 131 vessels built in her class [N9040 Japanese 2A Standard Ship], the Araosan Maru was a large merchant cargo ship of 6886 tons, with her steam boiler capable of propelling the maru at up to 13 knots.

During April 1945, as part of an unescorted Japanese convoy [SASI-45], the Araosan Maru was making it's way through the Gulf of Siam.

After deploying mines in Indochina, the U.S. Balao class submarine Hardhead [SS-365] entered the Gulf of Siam. On encountering the convey Hardhead attacked the Araosan Maru, sinking her with three torpedo strikes.

The Araosan Maru lies in 50m of water on the Cambodian side of the Gulf.

She is/was 7000 tons, a huge freighter built hastily, and not too well. This type of frieghter was easy prey for US submarines. The torpedo that sunk her combined with her poor construction and materials and numerous visits by Cambodian salvagers have really made a mess of this ship.

It's lucky she's shallow because there's a huge area to cover. She is broken in half (good shot) in a dog leg, sometimes on her side, sometimes upside down, really twisted up. We located this one using the Hardhead's War Patrol Report. As she is on eth far side of the Gulf we had a lot of other possible marks on the way, took ages to finally get that far.

Image: The Araosan Maru

Image: Making the long decent for another deep technical dive

Image: The Araosan Maru motoring