The Seabee Junk yard is about 200 yards west of the American Tanker. This area was used as a dumping ground after WWII for a variety of equipment used in construction projects on Guam, mainly the building of the Glas Breakwater.
Numerous bulldozers, wheeled equipment, large outboard propulsion units*, and large piping systems make this an interesting dive.
The propulsion units, looking like giant outboard motors, were used to push the barges around the harbor.
For more advanced divers, find the large coral mound south of the bulldozers at 50 feet and follow the bottom contours down to 130 feet where you'll find another very large bulldozer sitting upright on the bottom.
A "hands on" report from Kenneth Thompson, Navy Chief Carpenters Mate / Marine Technical Sargeant
Our largest projects were at Apra Harbor and building the breakwater. There was no breakwater before we built it, just a natural reef line that we followed to lay down the rip rap, rocks and coral that we blasted from Cabras island and from other gravel pits on the big island. Some concrete barges were sunk to make part of the breakwater then we dumped loads of rock, (rip rap) to build the break higher and wider. We built the whole thing from scratch, and it took us from September '44 to the end of the war to actually finish its full length. I don’t think it was fully completed when the battalion left as we were always adding to it. Some of it would erode from the huge waves that struck it from the ocean side.
I was the leading petty officer for one of many a convoy of ‘Seabee Specials’, as we called them, GMC 6 by 6 gravel dump trucks. I was a Carpenters’ Mate 1st class most of my time in the 76th Battalion, and it was my job to make sure we kept our trucks running to pick up rip rap and dump it onto the end of the breakwater that was already built. Then the dozers would level out what we had dumped. A few of the trucks actually went into the ocean as they dumped their loads, but none of our men went in with the trucks. They all got out safe, but there were some close calls. I drove the lead truck of my convoy most of the time. Our trucks also carried armed Seabees, as from time to time we were shot at by enemy holdouts. Life on Guam with the Seabees was hard and tough. We worked almost every day, and it all became pretty boring and tiresome.