On October 25, 1944, one of the most important naval battles of World War II in the Pacific, the Battle of Sámar, was fought in the waters of the Philippine Sea. In it, a small fleet of American destroyers repulsed the attack of a much more powerful Japanese contingent. At the cost, yes, of sinking several of the American ships and almost 1,600 casualties. Now, a group of explorers has just found one of those ships sunk to the deepest depth ever recorded for a shipwreck to date, 6,985 meters, as reported by the Associated Press.
the find. The sunken escort destroyer, the USS Samuel B. Roberts, was discovered by Victor Vescovo, a famous American underwater explorer who is dedicated to searching the seabed with his company Caladan Oceanic Expeditions and that, among other things, he is the human being who has submerged the deepest to date: in 2019 he descended almost 11 kilometers into the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, according to the BBC.
Vescovo and his company have been exploring the Philippine Sea for some time in search of ships sunk during World War II. In fact, the deepest shipwreck up to the one in question was also discovered by the American explorer in the same area: the destroyer USS Johnston, which is located at a depth of about 6,500 meters.
How? Finding the ship has not been an easy task, according to the explorers, since the data on the place of the shipwreck was not precise. To find the sunken destroyer escort, Caladan Oceanic used a side scan sonar of last generation installed in a submarine, with which they tracked the depths of the Philippine Sea until they found the military ship.
The task was particularly difficult because the vast majority of seabeds are less than 6,000 meters deep. According to the BBCOnly 2% of the ocean depths are above that figure, so special equipment and methods had to be used to find the USS Samuel B. Roberts.
Another video from the survey dive on the Sammy B. This one is from the starboard side near the bridge and forward gun mounts. We kept our distance because we spotted potentially live shells in the 40mm gun, and later towards the stern, depth charges still in their racks. pic.twitter.com/DY54o6Prpx
— Victor Vescovo (@VictorVescovo) June 26, 2022
The USS Samuel B. Roberts. Popularly known as ‘Sammy B’, the USS Samuel B. Roberts was a destroyer escort that participated in the aforementioned battle of Sámar, a military confrontation in which the United States inflicted a heavy defeat on the Japanese navy, superior in number. and firepower. The Japanese ships attacked the Americans for three hours without breaking their defense, and finally withdrew after suffering heavy losses.
According to the Associated Press, ‘Sammy B’ had a prominent role in the battle by disabling a Japanese heavy cruiser with one torpedo and significantly damaging another. After almost exhausting her ammunition and receiving severe punishment (multiple artillery hits can be seen on her hull in the images obtained by Caladan Oceanic) she was hit by the Japanese battleship Kongo and sank. Of her crew, made up of 224 men, 89 sailors died.
Image | Caladan Oceanic
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