The mystery of the Abobo maru shipwreck

The great ship sank

On April 1, 1945, a U.S. submarine, the Queenfish, was conducting an offensive patrol against an enemy ship in the East China Sea under the order of the commander of the 17th Mobile Force.

At 21:15 it was thick fog and dark. Loughlin, the Queenfish's captain, was aware that the weather was likely to be exploited by opponents, and all he had to rely on was experience and sound.

At 22:00, sonar detected a Japanese warship about 15 kilometers southeast of the Queenfish. At 23:00, when the Queenfish was about 1,100 meters away from the target ship, it fired four torpedoes. The torpedoes are exploding, and at 23:05, sonar signals are gone.

More than ten minutes later, the Queenfish arrived at the wreck site. Only one unconscious survivor was rescued from a sea of heavy oil and rubber.

The successful sinking of the enemy ship in three minutes pleased the Queenfish's captain Laffolin, but the successful attack did not bring Laffolin any glory. For a long time, he kept telling people that it was only when his men rescued the Japanese prisoner on a foggy, low-visibility night at sea that he realized he might not have hit a warship.

The "Unsinkable Ship"

Eight days later, the Japanese government, through a neutral country, sent an inquiry to the U.S. government about the incident. For a while, the "Abomaru" incident attracted the attention of the world. Loughlin, the Queenfish's captain, was court-martialed, and the U.S. government was put in the awkward position of not only admitting its fault but also paying for it and the ship. So what kind of boat did the Queenfish sink? Why did its sinking trigger such a backlash?

To improve conditions for prisoners of war, in 1944, the United States and Japan reached an agreement to provide humanitarian aid to Japanese-occupied personnel. After the rescue plan was proposed, the Japanese merchant ship "Apomaru" came into view. The ship was launched on March 5, 1943. It was nominally a merchant ship, but it was built to meet military requirements. It was a true military ship, regardless of size, nature, and performance.

After its completion, the Apomaru made six round-trip flights between Japan and Singapore to carry supplies for the Army. During that time, it was blasted by bombs and attacked by U.S. torpedoes, but still completed its mission, earning it the reputation of the Japanese military as an "unsinkable ship."

Japan and the United States decided to convert it into an aid carrier, and the Apomaru was guaranteed absolute safety on its voyage to Southeast Asia. To be sure, it was agreed that the Apomaru would remove its bow anti-aircraft guns and bow guns, remove its soldiers, and mark the hull with a green cross for identification.

Death at sea

With the Allies' promise of "absolute safety", on February 17, 1945, under the command of Captain Hinoda, the "Apomaru" began its last journey in the smoke of war, loaded with two thousand tons of relief supplies along the agreed route with the Allies.

After setting sail from the Japanese port of Menji on February 17, the Apomaru is scheduled to arrive in Hong Kong on February 22 and is said to be carrying cargo. On 2 March, she reached Singapore, and on 10 March, she entered Sumatra and reached the end of her voyage. With Singapore, Jakarta and other Japanese-controlled areas under siege, senior Japanese commanders, wealthy businessmen, and their families in Southeast Asia scrambled to board the ship, which was designed to carry 236 passengers and was packed with 2,008 people.

Mysteriously, upon arrival in Southeast Asia, the Apomaru went into a state of strict secrecy. Only at nightfall, under the watchful eye of the Japanese military police, were the goods brought into the hold. Loaded with a mysterious cargo and many passengers, the Arbo Maru left Singapore on March 28 on its way home.

At 2300 hours on 1 April, the submarine Queenfish attacked, and three minutes later the Apomaru sank. It is reported that after the attack, many Japanese floated to the surface, but they refused to be rescued by American submarines and died with the ship.

Japanese Lieutenant General Masumi Inada was in charge of transporting cargo and passengers in Southeast Asia at that time. In March 1973, he provided an important clue: The Apomaru may have been equipped with a self-exploding device when it sailed from Japan to Singapore! If his claim is to be believed, the sinking of the Apomaru was most likely self-inflicted. Providing circumstantial evidence for this claim is the description in Loughlin's report of the drowning victim refusing to be rescued. Why did they refuse to be rescued, if not to keep their skeletons in the closet? What exactly is on board the Apomaru?Diamonds and Treasure

Buried deep in the sea for 27 years, the legendary merchant ship "Apomaru" is finally linked to China with the visit of a mysterious figure.

1972 U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China for the first time. According to a special issue of the Daily Republican, Nixon prepared a hand-picked gift for what he called a handshake between giants - the exact location where the Apomaru sank in Chinese waters and a list of its cargo. The United States said it knew about the accident through satellites and hoped to work with the Chinese government to recover it. This news quickly caused the world's attention, Japan, Germany, and other countries contacted the Chinese government, put forward their judgment on the "Apomaru" treasure, and hope to be able to participate in the salvage. Combining their intelligence, the Apomaru's treasure was estimated to be 40 tons of gold, 12 tons of platinum, and 150,000 carats of industrial diamonds, worth an estimated $5 billion in the 1970s.

However, 1972 was a tumultuous time for Chinese society and Beijing had no time to pay attention to a 27-year-old shipwreck.

Blink of an eye 4 years passed, May 1, 1977, in the early morning of Kinmen, Matsu rumble gun sound, a "Hu Jiu Lao 3" led by the fleet into the Niushan Sea area, began to look for the legendary treasure ship. In the middle of the night, the day after the launch two batches of divers found a thick mast, recovered bodies of the Japanese generals during the second world war, and waved pills "o" with one of the loading information of tin ingots produced in southeast Asia as well as two wave pills "o" victims of famous brand, salvage team is convinced that: "the wave pill" has been found.

The most direct proof of this judgment came three years later. July 9, 1980, "Hu Jiu Lao 3" in the salvage site to find a ship bell, above clearly engraved with three words: A Po pill, and the construction of the time and the company.

On May 4, 1977, three days after the discovery of the Apomaru, the Chinese government decided to salvage the sunken ship in the name of clearing obstacles to fish grounds.

The wreck opened a hole, and a lot of rubber poured out of the cabin and floated onto the sea. In addition, the sunken ship was carrying other strategic materials. A large number of tin ingots, mica, optical glass, and other items have water. During the four years of operation, the salvage team collected nearly 3,000 tons of tin ingots. 2,800 tons of other supplies, 5,800 tons in total, worth $50 million.

An important discovery in the salvage operation

The salvage team judged that the information provided by the U.S. and Japan that the Apomaru was loaded with cargo was true. There are also three safes mentioned in the document, which are said to be the vaults where a great deal of treasure is hidden. But they don't appear where they're mentioned. Where could the vault be hidden?

The salvage team decided to start in the cabin. Through the search, the salvage team found the "puppet Manchukuo" Prime Minister Zheng Xiaoxu's round inkstone, and also found Zheng Xiaoxu's son Zheng Yu a seal.

See these two cultural relics, the salvage team more believe the authenticity of a piece of intelligence: missing for many years "Beijing people" skull is likely to be in the "A Po pill" ship!

Because someone claimed to have seen fossils of "Peking Man" in the "Manchukuo". If this is confirmed, the skull of the "Peking Man" may have disappeared in 1941 and ended up in the "Manchukuo" region, where Zheng Xiaoxu had been loyal. It was eventually hidden by the Japanese.

Although a search of the cargo hold failed to turn up the expected treasure, the treasure of the Apomaru looks more enticing all the time.

In 1980, the Chinese government decided to end the salvage project. So far, explanations for that decision have been mixed. The focus of the issue is on the treasure of "Apomaru" going up.

That triggered countless imaginations and speculation of the "A wave pill" cabin is still buried in the deep sea, it has five billion treasures. Will the missing 'Peking Man' skull be on board? All this remains a mystery.