The USS Independence was a World War II era light aircraft carrier in the central and western Pacific that survived to be used after the war for testing. The remains of the ship have now been found in surprisingly good condition.
Construction began when the ship was laid down in May 1941. It was manufactured by the New York Shipbuilding Corp., and built from the hull of a cruiser, the ISS Amsterdam. The vessel was launched on Aug. 22, 1942, and commissioned on Jan. 14, 1943, becoming the lead ship of its class. The Independence saw combat in the Pacific Ocean, at the battles of Rabaul and Tarawa, and was later torpedoed by Japanese planes.
The USS Independence was then sent to San Francisco, where the vessel was repaired and refitted. It was decommissioned in 1946, and used as part of nuclear weapons testing. In 1951, the ship was scuttled with nuclear waste onboard, which led to the widespread degradation of the marine environment near the Farallon Islands off San Francisco along the California coast.
An airplane can be seen in 3D images taken of the ship, sitting 2,600 feet beneath the surface of the water.
"After 64 years on the seafloor, Independence sits on the bottom as if ready to launch its planes. This ship fought a long, hard war in the Pacific and after the war was subjected to two atomic blasts that ripped through the ship. It is a reminder of the industrial might and skill of the 'greatest generation' that sent not only this ship, but their loved ones, to war," James Delgado of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.
Atomic bomb tests conducted at the Bikini Atoll in 1946 involved approximately 90 ships, including the Independence. The vessel survived a pair of the mighty blasts before being sent back home to the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco.
The Echo Ranger, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), was used to locate and photograph the vessel on the ocean floor. This 18.5 foot-long robotic explorer was designed and manufactured by aerospace and technology company Boeing.
"The Echo Ranger is uniquely suited for this type of mission and performed perfectly, allowing us to conduct a thorough survey of the USS Independence," Fred Sheldon, project manager for AUVs at Boeing, told the press.
This marine vessel was the fourth ship in the U.S. Navy to be christened with the name. The latest namesake entered service for the U.S. Navy in 2009.
Approximately 300 naval ships lie on the ocean floor in the waters off the coast of San Francisco, but the Independence is believed to be the deepest of all the wrecks. There are currently no plans in operation to enter the ship, or to examine the nuclear waste onboard the sunken vessel.
