Military
Aratama Maru, a Japanese merchant ship built in 1938, became a munitions transport during World War II and was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Seahorse while approaching Guam in an ammunition resupply convoy on April 8, 1944. The crew escaped after the ship caught fire, and the burning vessel drifted for three days before grounding on the reef at Talofofo Bay, where it broke in two. Later salvage, typhoons, and souvenir diving left only limited remains. The wreck is important as a wartime archaeological site within Guam’s submerged World War II landscape and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
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Guam · United States
