Researchers have spotted and identified a ship at the bottom of the ocean just off the coast of the Hawaii island Oahu.
The ship, named the the Dickenson and later known as the USS Kailua, sank more than 60 years ago.
A small submersible vehicle, the Pisces, found the ship nearly 20 miles off the coast of Oahu last year. The ship surprised researchers as they found it sitting upright with most of its parts still intact, including its mast and wheel.
"One of our first views of the USS Kailua was the classic helms wheel on the fantail," says Terry Kerby of the Hawaii Undersea Reserach Laboratory. "The ship was surprisingly intact for a vessel that was sunk with a torpedo. The upper deck structures from the bow to the stern were well-preserved and showed no sign of torpedo damage."
The ship was so well-preserved that identifying it was easy: it's Navy identification number was still visible on its bow.
The ship played a significant role in keeping Hawaii connected to the rest of the world. It launched in 1923, its purpose to lay out telecommunications submarine cable. Although Hawaii received cable for the first time in 1901, the Dickenson repaired that cable and brought needed supplies from 1923 to 1941.
British telecom company Cable and Wireless, Ltd., chartered Dickenson after that, using the ship to evacuate employees from Hawaii's Fanning Island during World War II. The ship brought the evacuees to Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 in the middle of the war.
The war made the Pacific's cable service inoperable throughout the entire war, so afterwards, the U.S. Navy chartered Dickenson and renamed it the USS. Kailua. The navy restored it to its original purpose by using it for repairing cable damaged by the war. Eventually, the Navy no longer needed it and it was deliberately sunk by torpedo in 1946.
However, the ship's final resting place was never recorded, so where it ended up was a mystery, until now.
Researchers plan on nominating the shipwreck location to the National Register of Historic Places.
"This unique American ship, vital in its role in keeping global telecommunications open in the first part of the 20th century, is also linked to historically significant Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, now part of Papahanaumokukea Marine National Monument in the National Marine Sanctuary System," says Dr. James Delgado of the NOAA's Office of National Maritime Sanctuaries. " Wrecks such as this remind us of special places in the ocean, like the monument, that connect all of us to them as refuges, sanctuaries and museums beneath the sea."
Sonar has found several other previously undiscovered shipwrecks, as well, including a Japanese submarine sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor, as well as two massive aircraft carrier submarines.
[Photo Credit: UH HURL/NOAA]
