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By Marcel Widmer Copyright © 2004

After hearing about "Ndokendoke", cave diving enthusiast Don Woods and his Team planned a penetration dive and followed the 100 meter long tunnel that lead them underneath the island, to a chimney that exits in the Jungle. Now Solomon Sea Divers are taking experienced divers through the cave in maximum groups of four, while less experienced divers can explore the cavern by entering from the outside wall. The boat dropped us in the shallow lagoon and from there, we walked a short distance to the entrance of the cave, the top being a freshwater pool surrounded by palms, ferns and mangroves. Looking down the narrow chimney, I decided to fold in my two Strobe Arms and a couple of divers who had chosen not to go through watched our disappearance with a grin on their faces… Descending along layered larval walls the sandy bottom appeared at a depth of 28 meters and the cave started to become more roomy.

We followed the passage along beautiful rock formations before arriving into the large cavern and being welcomed by the other divers and the bright blue colour of the ocean. The dive finishes off along the outside wall, alive with schools of fish and ablaze with soft corals, sea whips and colourful sponges. This is definitely an adventure not to be missed in anyone's diving career! For the Wreck Enthusiast a SBD - Douglas Bomber lies fully intact at 12 metres depth on the sandy bottom of nearby rendova lagoon.

This WWII plane is beautifully decorated with corals and two large vase sponges. Hundreds of dainty little coral shrimp were floating in the cockpit, while a family of clownfish have found a home on the gunners turret. I felt privileged to dive and photograph this historical site and could not stop thinking about the pilot James Dougherty and his lucky escape in July 1943. Following is the touching story about the history of this Wreck, told by Mariana Cooke… "When in 1991 divers first started diving out of munda, they were told by local fisherman of a submerged WWII airplane.

The fisherman did not seem to know much background on the plane, but thought it was a Japanese Bomber that ran out of fuel. A year later, Professor Ronnie Day, from East Tennessee University, doing research on battles fought in the Munda area during WWII shed more light on the origin of the plane. After completing the PADI Discover Scuba Diving program, Professor Ronnie braved the ocean for the first time on scuba. Armed with slate and pencil he accompanied myself and Solomon Sea Divers' Divemaster Tasker down to have a look at our plane. He recognized it straight away as an American Douglas SBD dive bomber and said that this was the first one he had seen fully intact. So now we knew what type of plane it was, but there were still many questions unanswered.

Two and a half years passed before the whole puzzle suddenly came together", Mariana continues. "One day we received a letter from an American lady, Candace Dougherty, who was trying to locate the plane that her father piloted during the war. She described it as a Douglas SBD-4 and mentioned that, though it was hit by Japanese anti aircraft fire near Munda, her father put the plane down in the water near Rendova Island, as the Rendova area had already been secured by US Forces. We replied that we had found a Douglas SBD near Rendova Island and that it might very well be her father's plane. She then sent us a copy of a map that her father had with him during the war, on which he marked the location of his sunken plane and voila, it was the same spot!" >> <next page>