A team of bold technical divers with the help of rebreathers carried out 16 amazing trimix dives to a depth of 300 ft during May first week, 2012 in order to retrieve stolen gold believed to have been lost in the Kuda Maru shipwreck.
These dives were performed on an area of the WWII shipwreck, which is considered to be of the Kuda Maru off the Cebu coast in Philippines.
AP Diving manufactured rebreathers were used by the team. Life support systems were manufactured by AP Diving for the dive vessel of James Cameron. This vessel was recently used to dive into the ocean’s deepest area.
The Kuda Maru is believed to have contained stolen gold that myths say is now guarded by the Japanese sailors’ ghosts who perished during WWII. The aim of the journey was to discover the shipwreck positively as the Kuda Maru.
According to Theuns van Niekerk, spokesperson of the expedition, they were unable to spend over 45 min at the bottom portion, because it was really deep and there was a need for long decompression times. It was difficult to find the name on the shipwreck’s hull, as the ship was present at a considerable depth and was corroded for 70 years. Wide HD video of the shipwreck was taken. For further identifications, a comparison will be made between the drawings and pictures of Kuda Maru and the wreck’s specific features, Theuns stated.
Scotty's Action Sports Network in Philippines sponsored this expedition. Damjan Perenic, Lou Holder, Patrice Laborda, Scott Livingston, and Theuns van Niekerk were the expedition divers.