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An American exploration team discovered a World War II-era US navy destroyer nearly 7,000 metres (23,000 feet) below water level off the Philippines, making it the largest tropical shipwreck ever discovered. On October 25, 1944, the USS Samuel B Roberts was lost during a battle off the central island of Samar as US forces fought to help free the Philippines, then a US colony, from Japanese occupation.
Caladan Oceanic, a Texas-based undersea technology company, said a crewed submersible filmed, photographed, and surveyed the battered hull of the “Sammy B” during a sequence of dives over eight days this month.
The ship’s three-tube torpedo missile system and gun mount were shown in images.
“It is now the deepest shipwreck ever located and polled,” tweeted Caladan Oceanic founder Victor Vescovo, who crewed the submersible.
“This small ship took on the best of the Japanese Navy, trying to fight them to the bitter end,” he explained.
According to US Navy records, the crew of Sammy B “floated for nearly three days awaiting rescue, with several survivors dying from wounds and shark attacks.” 89 people died out of the 224-person crew.
The battle was part of the larger Battle of Leyte, which saw fierce fighting between US and Japanese forces over several days.
In the October 25 engagement, Sammy B was one of four US ships sunk.
The USS Johnston, which had previously been identified as the world’s deepest shipwreck at nearly 6,500 metres, was reached by Vescovo’s team in 2021.
The team also began to look for the USS Gambier Bay at more than 7,000 metres below sea level in the most recent search but was unable to find it.
It did not look for the USS Hoel because there was no reliable information about where it might have gone down.
The Titanic is submerged in about 4,000 metres of water.
