Prinz Eugen

Depth:

This wreck goes from the surface to about 120'. Portions of the stern and props break the surface. The bow is facing away from the Island (roughly northeast) and is approximately 120'.

Anchoring:

I have recently been anchoring on a small coral head on the north side of the Eugen. On the north side, start near the prop and follow the hull out just 50 feet or so away from the wreck. Maybe 3/4 of the way to the bow there is a small coral head that comes to 20-25 feet below the surface. I find that anchoring here makes for a better dive. Once anchored, swim to the Eugen and follow it down until you get to the bow guns. You can easily swim under the ship here and get to the south side where most of the interesting things are to see. This also gets the deep part of the dive in first and you can work your way up around the stern.

Location:

Latitude			Longitude
Degrees	Minutes	Seconds	Degrees	Minutes	Seconds
8	45	12.960	167	40	57.420
8	45.21600	---------	167	40.95700	---------
8.75360	---------	---------	167.68261	---------	---------

Notes:

The Eugen is one of the only real "warships" in the lagoon. Most of the other ships are freighter or sub-chaser sized craft. It was a subject in the nuke testing on Bikini and later towed to Kwaj. Much has been written on the Eugen, so I will not attempt to repeat her story here.

As I mentioned above, the ship is upside-down and her bow points roughly northeast (away form Carlson island where she rests). There is a lot to see and you don't have to go deep if you do not want to!

The southern side is where I think you will find the more interesting things to look at. At the stern there are two turrets of guns that stick into the sandy lagoon bottom. As you move towards the bow you can see the superstructure resting beside the ship. At about 60 feet there is a torpedo room that has 4 live torpedoes. In the photos below I will show you how to find that. There are also a few guns along the way; just keep your eyes open! At the bow there is another set of guns resting in the sand.

Photos:

	These mid-sized guns are on the port (south) side of the ship. If you anchor as I suggested and pssed under the bow, you will come across these guns as soon as you start up the port side of the ship. I want to say that the depth here is around 80 feet.
This is a good landmark if you are going to look for the torpedoes. The shot is taken from the stern looking along the port side towards the bow. If you see this object, you want to go to the base (top) of this thing where it attaches to the ship. From the perspective of the view in the photograph, the door to the room with the torpedoes is just up and to the left of this location.
	Taken from the port side looking NW. Here you see the stern of the ship. You can see the marine growth and even a porthole still on the ship. The gap under the stern is usually quite sufficient and a diver should be able to slip under here to get around the ship.
These are the stern guns which are right at about 30 feet of water.
	This is the second tier of stern guns which is right behind the first set. I don't know how many times I dove the Eugen before I noticed these.
If you have seen any photos of the Prinz Eugen, then this superstructure should seem familar. It now reests in the sand on the south side of the wreck.
	This is the nose of the famous torpedoes. Without penetrating the ship, the average diver won't quite get this view. To get this view I just went along the hull beside the torpedoes. You'll find a porthole where you can see the nose of maybe one torpedo. I squeezed my camera in and took a shot blindly. I was surprised that it came out as good as it did!
Here's the back end of the torpedoes. The depth here is right at 60 feet. Notice that 3 of the props are missing. Someone really wanted a souvenir!
	I chased/swam with this guy near the Eugen. You can see some of the debris from the ship in the background.
More of the turtle. Now he's a bit further out from the ship. You can see a coral head off to the south not far from the ship.