Marveles Tunnel No. 1

On the 3rd of Jan. 2011 John Moffitt and I entered No. 1 Navy tunnel in Mariveles again. I stand by my estimated distances on this graph from my first entry of this tunnel on the 13th Dec. 2010:

At the end of this about 400 feet long tunnel is big hole filled with water. This picture shows that you maybe could walk passed in on the left:

But what is really amazing we could not determine how deep it is, we could not see bottom with our lights even though the water was very clear. John, weighted a chemical light, he turned off his light, let his eyes adjust to the dark and dropped the light. The light dropped and disappeared - it must be very deep. In the tunnel it looked like the diggers piled up dirt (and it mostly dirt, not rocks) right and left in the tunnel and in a big pile just before one gets to the end. Here is an image, me trying to point the light into the water:

The Gentleman who lives in front of No.1 tunnel said “Over 10 years ago people came here from Bulacan and panned for gold.” There certainly has been a lot of post WWII activity in this tunnel.

At the end of the only left lateral is a similar hole but you can see the bottom, maybe about 6 feet deep. I had noticed it on my previous visit on the 13th Dec. 2010:

What I had not noticed on my last visit that above this hole with water at the end of the only left lateral was rocks stacked like they were closing this tunnel from going further or prevent people to coming in from that side, your guess will be as good as mine:

When I first entered the No.1 Navy tunnel in Mariveles on 13th Dec. 2010 I created a photobucket album which you can read HERE

We also tried to determine whether the 2nd right lateral is a connecting tunnel to a parallel tunnel to No. 1, but I don’t think we can say that with 100% certainty. It is collapsed at the end but John Moffitt thinks it certainly might be a connecting tunnel.

Karl Welteke