Remains of a hundred-meter ship have been discovered off the coast of California at a depth of over 1 km — the vessel had been considered lost forever for the past 80 years.
The ship has been identified as the USS Stewart (DD-224) — the only destroyer in the U.S. Navy that was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.
According to reports from The New York Times, the vessel was located by underwater researchers from Ocean Infinity and the Air Sea Heritage Foundation and Search — utilizing the latest robotic hydroacoustic technology. Just a few days later, another team employed underwater drones to capture images of the ship, which was found upright and appeared to be "almost intact."
"This level of preservation is exceptional for a ship of this age. Potentially, this is one of the best-preserved examples of the four existing 'tub-type' destroyers of the U.S. Navy," the publication cites the researchers.
The team of researchers deployed a fleet of autonomous underwater drones 100 km off the coast of San Francisco. This technology is primarily used for creating high-resolution seafloor maps; however, recently, the devices have been associated with the discovery of long-lost ships — such as the Endurance, which sank during Ernest Shackleton's expedition in 1915.
After the DD-224 sank near Java in 1942, the Japanese raised it and used it as a patrol boat. The vessel returned to U.S. control in 1946, and at that time, the American military even considered renaming it RAMP-224 (the acronym stands for "Recovered Allied Military Personnel," a term used at the time for liberated prisoners of war).
In May 1946, the DD-224 was decommissioned and attempts were made to sink it near San Francisco by firing on the ship with F6F Hellcat fighters. Despite being hit by 18 rockets and thousands of .50 caliber rounds, the ship refused to sink — it ultimately went beneath the waves only after being "finished off" by the USS PC-799.
"The entire history of this ship has been extremely well documented," said Russ Matthews, a member of the research team. "The only part of this history we did not have was what it looks like today."
Source: PetaPixel, The New York Times
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