From photo evidence after the end of WWII the US Navy Catalines are believed to have been sunk in Calliope channel on the north western side of Palm Island. The locals have a pretty good idea of the precise location of the sunken wrecks but there have been no attempts in recent times to explore, survey and perhaps salvage them. My info is Calliope channel, a narow stretch of water separating the northern part of Great Palm island from Curacao Island, has such fast currents due to the funneling effect between the islands, means that normal scuba diving would be very difficult if not impossibel to faciltate a search. A survey using side scanning SONAR rigs would be the best bet to locate them, but after 76 years there might be little remaining material of the main structure. Dive sites on Japanese H6K Mavis flying boats near Gavutu in the Florid Islands, the Solomons is mch easier to explore as the wrecks are in the lee of the island and currents are fairly mild in comparison. The other question is whether after 76 years the wrecks are still in the channel? Numerous cyclones and associated tidal surges over that period may have moved them out into deeper water. In that case the search would be much more expensive than a localised one in the channel.
From photo evidence after the end of WWII the US Navy Catalines are believed to have been sunk in Calliope channel on the north western side of Palm Island. The locals have a pretty good idea of the precise location of the sunken wrecks but there have been no attempts in recent times to explore, survey and perhaps salvage them.
My info is Calliope channel, a narow stretch of water separating the northern part of Great Palm island from Curacao Island, has such fast currents due to the funneling effect between the islands, means that normal scuba diving would be very difficult if not impossibel to faciltate a search. A survey using side scanning SONAR rigs would be the best bet to locate them, but after 76 years there might be little remaining material of the main structure. Dive sites on Japanese H6K Mavis flying boats near Gavutu in the Florid Islands, the Solomons is mch easier to explore as the wrecks are in the lee of the island and currents are fairly mild in comparison.
The other question is whether after 76 years the wrecks are still in the channel? Numerous cyclones and associated tidal surges over that period may have moved them out into deeper water. In that case the search would be much more expensive than a localised one in the channel.
Very interesting 👌
Sorry we didn’t clean up after ourselves