The bow of the USS New Orleans, blown away by Japanese torpedoes in 1942, was located near Guadalcanal Island in the South Pacific.
The ship survived the attack, but the crew, carrying more than 180 people, was killed when one of the ship’s agricultural magazines was attacked by torpedoes and exploded, tearing the entire front of the ship.
The ship’s bow section was found in Iron Bottom Sound near Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands with a depth of 2,214 feet (675 meters) of iron bottom sound, according to the statement.
You might like it
“All rights should have sunk this ship,” he said in a statement that he has retired from the rear of Samuel Cox, director of Naval History and Heritage Command. “However, her crew’s heroic damage management efforts have made USS New Orleans one of the most heavily damaged US cruisers in World War II to actually survive.”
New Orleans was attacked at the Battle of Tassafalonga near Guadalcanal on the night of November 30th, 1942. The US warship attempted to intercept the Japanese destroyer, which was delivering supplies to the island.
The Navy Battle took place several months after the successful landing of the US Marines and Soldiers at Guadalcanal, the leading Japanese military base that was finally captured in February 1943.
Related: 30 incredible sinking shipwrecks from World War I and World War II
Image 1/3
strategy
The wreckage of the bow was discovered by the wecrowded surface vessel (USV) Drix at the University of New Hampshire.
The USV was managed by researchers on a Nautilus exploration vessel owned and operated by a US nonprofit organization called The Ocean Exploration Trust (OET). The expedition was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Daniel Wagner, the OET chief scientist, one of the search leaders, said in a statement that a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) was sent to explore the wreckage after the discovery by Drix. And hundreds of experts from around the world worked to make positive identification.
After the explosion was torn from the bow, New Orleans began flooding. However, the ship was floating by the crew who remained in their posts, but some lost their lives and three naval crosses were awarded posthumously.
The ship was temporarily repaired with coconut logs at a nearby port until it was able to slowly return to the United States for permanent repairs.
“Finding this ship’s bow is an opportunity to remember the sacrifices of this brave crew, even in one of the worst nights in US Navy history,” Cox said.
Please take a look
Source link
