Exploring shipwrecks has to be one of the most exciting things to do underwater. Shipwrecks
are not only fun to explore, but they are fascinating time capsules from another age.
I've explored a lot of wrecks, but the Prinz Eugen is one of the most interesting and unique.
I'm standing on Kwajalein, an island smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean—and
I think it might be the hottest place on Earth. A major battle was fought here more than 50
years ago between the United States and Japan, during World War II.
Today. Kwajalein is a restricted US Army base, and not many people get to dive here.
The lagoon is littered with the remains of many Japanese ships from the battle. But today
I'll be diving on the wreck of the Prinz Eugen, a German heavy cruiser built in 1936 by the
Nazis. How it ended up at Kwajalein Atoll in the middle of the Pacific, is an interesting
story.
The Prinz Eugen, along with the German warship Bismarck, was involved in the famous battle
with the British ship Hood in 1941. The Prinz Eugen escaped and survived the war, only to
be surrendered to the United States in 1945.
In 1946 the U.S. military took the Eugen, fully armed and provisioned, to Bikini Atoll
for atomic bomb testing. By that time, Kwajalein Atoll was an important U.S. base and the center
of operations for the Bikini atomic test program.
Surprisingly, the Eugen survived not one but TWO atomic blasts.
It was still afloat, so they towed it to nearby Kwajalein for decontamination and study. But
before she could be studied, the Eugen unexpectedly rolled over and sank. The opportunity to study
her was lost.
Although many of the wrecks at Kwajalein Atoll can be hard to locate without a depth finder,
the Prinz Eugen is not one of them because it sank close to shore. The bow lies in over
a hundred feet of water, but the stern sticks up above the surface, with several props still
attached.
Analysis by the military has determined that radiation levels are now acceptable for exploration
of the wreck, so our team suits up to explore the Prinz Eugen.
Historian Mark Miller, expedition leader Tom Krasuski and I are going to explore to the
wreck and see what we can find.
MARK: Ready Tom?
TOM: Ready. Let's go!!
Entering the water, we head towards the bow. Everything looks confusing on this wreck because
it's upside down.
I'm the only cameraman on this expedition, so it's up to me to stay behind the camera
and follow Mark's lead.
As we enter the wreck, it's spooky. The ceilings are where the floor should be and
the floor is over my head. All the walls are rusting and coming apart. This once-mighty
ship feels like it could crumble around me. I am diving into a piece of history. Not too
many ships have been tested with an Atom bomb, never mind Nazi ships!
We venture down a long hallway and into a galley. Part of the galley contains a bakery.
We carefully squeeze in there and find some cooking utensils still lying about. The ovens
used to make meals for the crew are still intact. Although rusting at the seams, the
white enamel fronts are in good shape. Even the maker's mark is still visible on the oven
door.
I can only imagine what it was like to be aboard this ship so long ago.
The ship's 8-inch artillery guns had gravity mounted turrets. They just sat there, unattached
to the ship. They weigh so much; they weren't going anywhere, unless the ship turned upside
down. But then it did, here at Kwajalein.
The ship was fully provisioned and rearmed for the bikini test. Authorities wanted to
find out what an atom bomb would do to a typical ship; so they stocked the food lockers and
they restocked the arms. They replaced missing cannon and artillery shells so that the magazines
were full and they replaced any missing torpedoes. When they dropped the atomic bomb on this
ship, it was loaded to the hilt.
And a lot of those munitions are still in place, and live. The torpedoes that we see
when we venture into the torpedo locker there are live. They have a couple hundred pounds
of TNT in each warhead. Even 60 years later, they can go off. So we are very careful when
we squeeze through that room.
The Prince Eugen is a very dangerous wreck to dive. It's not only upside down, but tilted
to one side, making the interior very disorienting. It's also silty so we have to be careful
not to kick up too much muck in the wreck. We could get lost inside.
What is especially surprising to me is that although atomic weapons were used on the Prinz
Eugen not once but twice, it appears to have no more deterioration than other ships of
the same age that were sunk with conventional weapons.
All too soon, with decompression time accumulating, we must end our dive and head for the surface.
I spend a few minutes under the boat decompressing on a special high-oxygen mix supplied from
the surface before heading up.
I will probably never get to explore this remote wreck again—but I feel incredibly
privileged to have experienced this piece of history first hand before it crumbles and
decays into the sea.