Sunken US warship found in Pacific Ocean

Sunday, 20 August 2017 5:12 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 22 August 2017 1:11 PM ]

This 1937 image released to the AFP by the US Navy shows the Portland-class heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis in Pearl Harbor in 1937.

Researchers have found the wreckage of the US warship Indianapolis, which was sunk by a Japanese submarine towards the end of World War ll, leading to the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the US Navy.

The USS Indianapolis was discovered on Friday, more than 18,000 feet (5.5 kilometers) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean somewhere in the Philippine Sea, the US Navy said on Saturday.

The heavy cruiser was returning from its secret mission to deliver enriched uranium and other parts for the nuclear bomb that would soon be dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the North Pacific Ocean on July 30, 1945.

The battleship was carrying 1,196 sailors and crew members when it sunk, leading to the death of 879 of its crew, the worst maritime disaster in US naval history.

The ship's rapid sinking in the span of 12 minutes and the lack of a distress call meant the ship's location had long been a mystery.

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A team of civilian researchers found the wreckage after a Navy historian unearthed new information in 2016 about the warship's last movements that pointed to a new search area.

The researchers, led by Paul Allen, a Microsoft Corp co-founder, spent months searching in a 600-square-mile (1,500-square-kilometer) patch of ocean.

The expedition crew of Research Vessel Petrel, which is owned by Allen, deployed a remotely operated underwater vessel that can reach some of the deepest ocean floors.

Allen said in a statement on his website that the US Navy had asked him to keep the precise location confidential.

The Navy said it had plans to honor the 22 survivors from the Indianapolis still alive.

The ship is well-known for carrying parts for the atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" as well as enriched uranium fuel for its nuclear reaction.

Those supplies were delivered to Tinian island, a US territory located in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The island was the location where US bombers carried the two atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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