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searcher have locate the shipwreck of one of the few warships that struggle for both the United States and its enemy Japan during World War II .
The remains of the destroyer USS Stewart were found in early August at a depth of roughly 3,500 metrical foot ( 1,065 meter ) in the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary , about 50 miles ( 80 kilometers ) northwestern United States of San Francisco .
Images from the three autonomous underwater vehicles used to explore the wreck show it is in remarkably good condition after more than 80 years under the waves.
It was sink there during target practice in 1946 by rocket from U.S. warplanes and shells from a U.S. warship . But its exact localization was unknown , until the wreck was rediscovered by three autonomous underwater vehicle ( AUVs ) deployed by the marine robotics companionship Ocean Infinity .
fit in toThe New York Times , the AUVs searched a 37 - square - nautical - mi ( 49 straight miles , or 127 straight km ) area of the seafloor in under 24 hours .
" We covered it very speedily , and in high resolution,“Andy Sherrell , Ocean Infinity ’s managing director of maritime operation , evidence the newsprint .
A high-resolution sonar image shows the warship wreck upright on the seafloor about 50 miles northwest of San Francisco.(Image credit: Ocean Infinity)
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On both sides
The Stewart jump the war as a U.S. destroyer designated DD-224 and was ordered to Borneo in November 1941 , shortly before the U.S. entered World War II . It served as an escort vessel with other American warship in the first months of the Pacific War , but it was badly damaged by gunshot from Japanese warships near Bali in February 1942 , during the Battle of Badung Strait .
The Stewart manage to come back to Surabaya on the island of Java . But the port amount under Nipponese attack , so the vessel was scuttled — designedly sink — by its own crew , who set off explosive in its hull . A year later on , however , Japanese raised the recessed warship and it served as a patrol gravy boat for the Imperial Japanese Navy until the war ended in 1945 .
The ship again fall under U.S. ascendancy when Japan surrendered on Sept , 2 , 1945 . The vessel was in short recommissioned as DD-224 by the U.S. Navy , but by then it was in poor shape . It was finally decommissioned in May 1946 and then used for object drill .
This wide-area sonar scan shows the wreck of USS Stewart on the seafloor. It was one of the few ships to fight on both the American side and the Japanese side during WWII.(Image credit: Ocean Infinity)
Ghost ship
The Stewart was known as the " Ghost Ship of the Pacific " and had been seen by American fender behind enemy business during World War II , consort to astatementby the archeology company Search , which was also postulate in the find . Other participants included the nonprofitAir / Sea Heritage Foundation , the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ’s ( NOAA ) Maritime Heritage program and the U.S. Navy .
The whodunit was solved only after the end of the warfare , when the vessel was encounter afloat in the Nipponese port metropolis of Kure , near Hiroshima .
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The wreck was discovered in early August this year where it sank in 1946, after being used for target practice by American warplanes and warships.(Image credit: Ocean Infinity)
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The shipwreck is in outstandingly good shape after nearly 80 years under the sea , according to the statement , and will give insight into early-20th - century naval architecture and technology .
The U.S. recaptured the Stewart at the end of WWII. Although originally scuttled in 1942, it was later raised by the Japanese and pressed into service as a patrol boat.(Image credit: Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command )
" The USS Stewart symbolise a singular opportunity to study a well - preserved example of early twentieth - one C destroyer pattern , " maritime archaeologistJames Delgado , who was formerly with NOAA and is now a aged frailty president at Search , say in the statement .
" Its story , from U.S. Navy service to Nipponese capture and back again , makes it a powerful symbol of the Pacific War ’s complexity , " he said .
In 1946, the worn-out vessel was used for target practice off the coast of California. It was finally sunk by shells from a U.S. warship.(Image credit: U.S Navy, National Archives)
The Stewart was recaptured in October 1945 and briefly recommissioned as an American warship; this photograph shows the recommissioning ceremony in Japan.(Image credit: U.S Navy, National Archives)
