Explorers have found the deepest shipwreck ever identified, a US navy destroyer sunk during World War II, nearly 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) below sea level off the Philippines.
The USS Samuel B Roberts went down during the Battle Off Samar in the Philippine Sea in October 1944. US forces had fought to liberate the Philippines – then a US colony – from Japanese occupation.
Texan financier and adventurer Victor Vescovo, who owns a deep-diving submersible, discovered the “Sammy B” battered but largely intact as the during a series of dives over eight days this month.
“Resting at 6,895 meters, it is now the deepest shipwreck ever located and surveyed,” tweeted Caladan Oceanic founder Victor Vescovo.
“This small ship took on the finest of the Japanese Navy, fighting them to the end,” he added.
The vessel is famed for a heroic final stand against the Japanese and according to US Navy records, Sammy B’s crew “floated for nearly three days awaiting rescue, with many survivors perishing from wounds and shark attacks”.
Outnumbered and outgunned, it managed to contain and frustrate several enemy ships before eventually going down and out of the 224 crew, 89 died.
