Explorers have found the wreckage of a ship deep under water, a US Navy destroyer that sank during World War II. The destroyer USS Samuel Roberts (DE-413) was found on Wednesday, June 22, in the Philippine Sea.
The destroyer was hit in October 1944 in a battle off the island of Samar in the Philippine Sea, by Japanese fire, and sunk to the bottom of the sea at a depth of 22,600 feet, reports a local Arabic daily.
According to the British newspaper, Daily Mail, 224 men were on board the destroyer, 89 of whom died when it sank, while the rest survived thanks to the lifeboats. The ship is reportedly largely intact.
Commenting on the discovery of the wreck, the American billionaire and adventurer and private equity investor Victor Lance Vescovo, retired naval officer, space tourist and undersea explorer and a co-founder and managing partner of private equity company Insight Equity Holdings, thanked the deep-diving submarine to reach the ship.
Veskovo who has visited the deepest points of all Earth’s five oceans during the Five Deeps Expedition of 2018–2019, said: “It took 6 dives to find it, and it is an extraordinary honor to locate the missing ship and in doing so give us the opportunity to retell its incredible story of heroism and duty.”
