The wreck of a protracted misplaced United States Navy destroyer – as soon as dubbed ‘the ghost ship of the Pacific’ – has lastly been discovered.
USS Stewart (DD-224) was a Clemson-class destroyer that, extremely, served in each the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy in the course of the Second World Warfare.
The battleship was scuttled by the People after she suffered extreme battle injury.
Nonetheless, unbeknownst to the Allied forces, the Imperial Japanese Navy salvaged the USS Stewart, repaired her hull and recommissioned her as Patrol Boat No. 102 (PB-102).
She finally met a watery grave – which has now been rediscovered by seabed survey utilizing autonomous underwater autos (AUVs).
The USS Stewart – named after Charles Stewart, a Rear Admiral who commanded a variety of warships within the early 1800s – was in-built 1919. Earlier than the outbreak of the Second World Warfare, USS Stewart patroled the Philippine Islands and Chinese language waters as a part of the Asiatic Fleet.
The ship was a part of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command when, in 1942, she was severely broken in the course of the Battle of Badung Strait, close to Bali, in what’s now Indonesia. USS Stewart was initially positioned in a floating drydock at Surabaya for repairs.
Nonetheless, relentless air assaults – and the danger of her being captured by the enemy – compelled US naval authorities to scuttle each the battleship and drydock.
Nonetheless, she was salvaged, repaired and put again into to service by the enemy. Allied naval intelligence was initially baffled when it acquired stories of an American warship flying the ‘Rising Solar’ ensign of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
This led to USS Stewart being dubbed the ‘Ghost ship of the Pacific’. She was recaptured by American forces in 1945 and recommissioned into the US Navy as DD-224.
She then lastly returned to US waters – solely to be sunk by US fighter planes. USS Stewart’s unhappy destiny noticed her used for goal apply by Navy F6F Hellcat fighters and USS PC-799.
She was sunk off the coast of California – the place she has now been rediscovered. Researchers from SEARCH, Ocean Infinity, the Air/Sea Heritage Basis, NOAA’s Workplace of Nationwide Marine Sanctuaries, and the Naval Historical past and Heritage Command (NHHC), discovered the wreck website utilizing autonomous underwater autos (AUVs).
A SEARCH spokesperson stated: “These state-of-the-art unmanned submersibles, every geared up with high-resolution artificial aperture sonar (HiSAS) and multibeam echosounder methods, have been programmed to concurrently conduct an intensive and methodical scan of the seafloor that lasted 24 hours.
“When the information was retrieved, it revealed the gorgeous and unmistakable picture of a sunken ship 3,500 toes under the floor.”
A better inspection of the wreckage has proven that the USS Stewart continues to be largely intact resting almost upright on the seafloor. SEARCH instructed HeritageDaily that this degree of preservation is outstanding for a vessel of its age.
It’s, probably, the best-preserved instance of a US Navy “fourstacker” destroyer in existence.