![]() Robert Kraft, who heads subsea operations for Vulcan, said the Hornet was on their list as a key shipwreck of interest due to its "place in history as an aircraft carrier that saw many pivotal moments in naval battles." Last March, it discovered a different American aircraft carrier, the USS Lexington. It was yet another success for the Petrel, which over the past few years has uncovered numerous World War II-era shipwrecks, representing vessels from the US, British, Italian, and Japanese navies. The researchers sent down one of the robots, which found the Hornet on its first dive mission. The Petrel carries two onboard robotic vehicles which it deploys to plumb nautical depths as much as three miles below the surface. They plotted out a search grid focused on the warship's last known location. To find the Hornet, the expedition team aboard the Petrel used data from the archives of nine other US warships that sighted the carrier in the days before its demise. The ship's discovery was announced Tuesday by Vulcan Inc., the company founded by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, which owns the Petrel. It had lain dormant on the murky ocean floor - some three miles beneath the surface - for more than 76 years. Late last month a research vessel called the R/V Petrel found the World War II aircraft carrier's wreckage more than 17,000 feet below the surface of the South Pacific, near the Solomon Islands. When the warship slipped beneath the waves early the next morning, it was the last time a human eye had gazed upon the Hornet's gray hull. It carried 2,200 crew, 140 of whom were lost that day. (CNN) - On October 26, 1942, the USS Hornet was mortally wounded in a Japanese onslaught during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. She carried 2,200 crew, 140 of whom were lost that day.Full credit: US Naval History and Heritage Command In keeping with a Navy tradition, the USS Wasp's spirit lives on its modern namesake, which now supports naval operations in the Indo-Pacific region.On October 26, 1942, the USS Hornet was mortally wounded in a Japanese onslaught during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. "Her pilots and her aircrew, with their courage and sacrifice, were the ones that held the line against the Japanese when the Japanese had superior fighter aircraft, superior torpedo planes and better torpedoes." "Wasp represented the US Navy at the lowest point after the start of WWII," retired Rear Admiral Samuel Cox, who leads the US Naval History and Heritage Command, said in a statement. She listed heavily, with massive smoke plumes billowing into the air, and sank not long after.Īmong the more than 2,000 men in her crew, 176 were killed in the attack. A few others found their mark in the Wasp's hull, igniting a massive fire aboard. Two hit other ships, the USS O'Brien and the USS North Carolina. On September 15, 1942, a Japanese submarine fired a barrage of torpedoes. The Wasp was ordered to escort a contingent of transport ships carrying Marine reinforcements to fight in British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was determined to save the precious fortress.Īfter the Battle of Midway, the US needed more help in the Pacific Theater, as Allied forces fought to pry out Japanese forces, (credit: US Navy) A wasp that could sting more than onceįor nearly a century and a half, the British had controlled the small island of Malta just south of Italy, using its harbor to dock warships and to project British power throughout the Mediterranean.ĭuring World War II, German and Italian planes dominated the skies and pummeled the island. But its rediscovery is giving new life to a heroic story of a bygone era. In step with the US Navy's policy of leaving its shipwrecks untouched - as they are sailors' hallowed graves - the Wasp's hull will remain in the murky depths. The Petrel, which sits on the surface, has a crew of 10, who plot the last known locations of old warships and send robots to the depths to rediscover them. The Petrel in recent years has discovered dozens of wrecks of ships that once flew the flags of the American, British, Japanese and Italian navies. ![]() Word of the sighting comes a month after the Research Vessel Petrel, funded by the late Microsoft founder Paul Allen, discovered another World War II-era shipwreck, the USS Hornet, which sank not far away, off the Solomon Islands.
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