Scuba Diving - El Capitan / USS Majaba in Subic Bay, Philippines

---

Scuba Diving - El Capitan / USS Majaba in Subic Bay, Philippines

My second dive in Subic Bay was at El Capitan (also known as USS Majaba). This dive was much shallower than my first... aorund 15 feet at its shallowest point and 50 feet at its deepest. Unfortunately, the visibility wasn't nearly as good at my first dive. I pretty much spent this dive just trying not to get seperated from the rest of my dive group. I was at the back and didn't see much because of all the silt that they had kicked up. Nevertheless, diving is diving is diving...so I was happy to get in the water.

This wreck was laying completely on its port side so swimming through it was a bit disorienting because everything was offset at a 90 degree angle from how it should have been. Once again, a flashlight would have been very helpful in seeing the inside of the wreck while we swam through. There wasn't nearly as many fish here as my previous dive either. The only interesting fish I saw during the dive was a giant pufferfish.

Some information of El Capitan / USS Majaba from http://www.subicbaydive.com/sites/elcapitan.html:
Majaba (AG 43) was built as SS Meriden by Albina Engine & Machine Works, Portland, Oreg., in 1919; acquired by the Navy under charter as SS El Capitan from her owner, E. K. Wood Lumber Co., of San Francisco, Calif., 23 April 1942; renamed Majaba and commissioned the same day.Until the 1880’s lumber for the west coast of the United States was normally shipped from New England around South America. Around that time lumber companies started mills is British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. The E K lumber company owned and operated many timber tracks and sawmills in the Pacific Northwest. They owned their own fleet of ships. One the ship the “C.A. Thayer” was named after one of the owners and is now a historical monument in San Francisco. The company shipped it’s lumber to the San Francisco area.

The demand for lumber lead to a demand for ships and many ship builders grew up in the northwest. One of these was Albina Engine & Machine Works. Albina Engine & Machine Works was a small pre-war shipbuilder, in continuous operation since 1918. The Meriden was hull 16. Albina continued after the war but closed in the 1980s.

Majaba completed conversion to a miscellaneous auxiliary 14 May and subsequently steamed to the Hawaiian Islands for cargo runs to islands of Polynesia and the South Pacific. Departing Honolulu 24 June, she operated during the next several months out of Honolulu and completed supply missions to Palmyra Island, Christmas Island, and Canton Island. Thence, she reached Efate, New Hebrides, to bolster the vital ocean supply line to American forces engaged in the bitter struggle for control of Guadalcanal.

Majaba departed the New Hebrides 26 October and steamed to meet two supply convoys bound for the Solomons. However, heavy weather prevented the rendezvous, and she returned to Espiritu Santo 29 October. Later that day she sailed once again for Guadalcanal where she arrived 2 November. Screened by Southard (DMS 10), she crossed Ironbottom Sound and unloaded cargo at Tulagi that same day. Despite the menace of powerful Japanese naval forces, Majaba shuttled cargo between Tulagi and Guadalcanal during the next few days. She arrived off Lunga Point, Guadalcanal, early 7 November; and, while her escort, Woodworth (DD 460), patrolled for enemy submarines off Lunga Point, she began final unloading operations prior to her planned departure for Espiritu Santo. Shortly before 0930, lookouts in Lansdowne (DD 486), anchored near Majaba, spotted a submarine periscope followed by two torpedo wakes. One torpedo, which apparently passed under Lansdowne, hit the beach but failed to explode. The other curved toward Majaba and exploded against her starboard side amidships, destroying her engineroom and boilers. She settled and listed slightly but did not sink. While Lansdowne and Woodworth searched for the enemy sub, Bobolink (AT 131) went to Majaba’s aid. The tug towed the disabled ship east along the coast of Guadalcanal and beached her that afternoon off the month of the Tenaru River.

On 8 January 1943 Navajo (AT 64) and Bobolink freed Majaba from her beached position and towed her to Tulagi. Reclassified IX 102 and placed in an inservice status on 1 July 1943, she remained at Florida Island, Solomons, and during the remainder of World War II served as a floating quarters and material storage ship.Following the end of the war, Majaba was towed to the Philippines. She remained at San Pedro Bay, Leyte, until early in 1946 when she was towed to Subic Bay, Luzon. There, she was placed out of service 14 March 1946 and delivered to WSA for return to her owner. Her name was struck from the Navy list 28 March 1946.

---