6 September 2024: Fall (Autumn) is in the air and the nights - at least - are getting cooler. Not necessarily a bad thing. What is a bad thing though, are the storms that roll through at this time of year and this year is no exception. Hurricanes are queuing up to whack the southeastern United States - some have already done so with disastrous results - and another is in line for making a landfall in the coming week. Let's keep those folks already affected and those about to be in our thoughts and prayers.... it's likely to get real ugly.
Today's post caught us quite by surprise as we had no idea that a United States ship had been captured by an enemy force since the U.S. Frigate Chesapeake was captured by the British frigate HMS Shannon off Boston MA on 1 June, 1813 (War of 1812). This courtesy of the Daily Mail.
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'Ghost Ship of the Pacific' is found on California
ocean bed 82 years after becoming only American vessel to be captured by
Japanese in WW2
The wreck of the 'Ghost Ship of the Pacific' has
been found on the California ocean
bed, eight decades after its historic role in World War II.
Found almost 3,500 feet beneath the water's
surface, the wreck of the 'Ghost Ship of the Pacific' was discovered through
powerful robotic sonar technology after 82 years.
The 314-foot-long ship was identified to be the
only US Navy Destroyer that was captured by Japanese forces during World War
II, known as the DD-224 or USS Stewart. Another set of drones managed to
capture images of the wreck days later, finding it sitting upright and 'almost
perfectly intact', reported the New York Times.
The level of preservation is 'exceptional' for a
ship of its age, according to superintendent of the Cordell Bank and Greater
Farallones national submarine sanctuaries.
'[This] makes it potentially one of the
best-preserved examples of a US Navy 'four-piper' destroyer known to exist,'
she continued.
The drones used to locate the historic shipwreck
have become a valuable asset fo researching the history of our oceans.
In 2018, Ocean Infinity developed and deployed the
largest fleet of marine robotics to collect subsea data.
'Using the latest remote and robotic technology, we
provide scientists and research institutions with vast quantities of data to
help them make important decisions and to aid their understanding of the
changing ocean landscape,' wrote Ocean Infinity.
The company also helped find the wreck of the USS Nevada in 2020, which escaped Battleship
Row at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and was one of the US Navy's longest-serving
battleships.
The drones, orange and torpedo-shaped, serve to
collect high resolution data using sonars that create high-resolution maps of
the seafloor. The same technology is used for projects such as wind farms, oil
rigs or laying undersea cable and pipelines.
Senior Vice President, Jim Delgado, of SEARCH Inc,
the leading global organization in maritime archaeology, told the New York
Times: 'We're in the midst of, I think, a radical change in Ocean
discovery.
Delgado was part of the search for the DD-224 for a
decade as the director of maritime heritage for the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, which oversees more then 620,000 square miles of
underwater parks in the US.
The company's research to understand and predict
changes in weather, climate and oceans and coasts is part of their effort to
educate as well as conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and
resources.
Russ Matthews, president of the nonprofit Air/Sea
Heritage Foundation and a member of the discovery team, told the New York
Times: 'The whole history of that ship was actually exceptionally well
documented. The only piece of that story we didn't have is, what does it look
like today?'
Matthews and Sherell, the director of maritime
operations at Ocean Infinity, collaborated to test the biggest autonomous
drones to locate the DD-224.
Sherrell said that mapping a region of 37 square
nautical miles, which was the search area for the DD-224, typically takes weeks
but with the drones the ship was spotted within hours.
Now, the data gathered by Ocean Infinity makes up
the best map of that portion of the Cordell Bank sanctuary.
The Stewart received two battle stars for her service
in WWII. She began when she joined the Destroyer Squadron, Atlantic, in 1921
where she was sent to the Philippines for a 23-year mission.
As war broke out in 1937 between Japan and China,
Stewart was stationed along Chinese ports before World War II led her back to
the Philippines.
She was lead ship of the second group against
Japanese forces and came under several vicious night-time attacks.
Stewart sustained damage to her torpedo racks and
galley, as well as a shot below the waterline that flooded the engine room with
two feet of water.
Despite being able to continue operating, she was
severely damaged and wasn't supported well enough on the Surabaya floating
drydock she was docked at during repairs. As the dock rose, she fell onto her
side in 12 feet of water that caused further damage to the hull and propeller
shafts.
A Japanese bomb caused even more damage before the
ship's port was eventually evacuated.
Later in the war, reports of an American warship
operating in enemy waters came through after Japanese forces had repaired the
Stewart in 1943 until arriving in Kure in 1944.
In April 1945, she was bombed and damaged by US
forces and was eventually found again in August of the same year.
In October 1945, the ship was recommissioned by the
US Navy at Kure and nicknamed 'RAMP-224' for 'Recovered Allied Military
Personnel' before her engines gave out near Guam.
She was decommissioned in May 1946 and sunk off San
Francisco as a target for aircraft after two hours
of gunfire.
Dr. Delgado said: 'This ship, in its own way,
basically was humanized by the Navy. People pour so much into ships - and we
have since the beginning of time. They represent us.'
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Certainly a surprise for us and perhaps for many of our American readers. Maybe we all learned something!
Until next time,
Fair Winds,
Old Salt
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