[imagesource: Caladan Oceanic / Eyos Expeditions]

A US Navy destroyer ship sunk during WWII has just been discovered lying 6 985 metres underwater in the Philippines.

Locating the USS Samuel B Roberts, popularly known as the “Sammy B”, marks the deepest shipwreck to ever be discovered.

Explorers were excited to find the US vessel famed for a heroic final stand against the Japanese this past Wednesday, broken into two pieces on a slope at an incredible depth.

According to The Guardian, Sammy B was 426 metres deeper than the previous deepest wreck, the USS Johnston, discovered last year.

Historical records of where the Sammy B wreck lay were not very accurate, so finding her eventually was like unearthing a real gem:

Image: US Navy

Both wrecks were found by the American explorer and former Navy commander Victor Vescovo, who is also the founder of Dallas-based Caladan Oceanic Expeditions:

Part of the dive on the Sammy B. It appears her bow hit the seafloor with some force, causing some buckling. Her stern also separated about 5 meters on impact, but the whole wreck was together. This small ship took on the finest of the Japanese Navy, fighting them to the end. pic.twitter.com/fvi6uB0xUQ

— Victor Vescovo (@VictorVescovo) June 24, 2022

The discovery involved a submersible with the deepest side-scan sonar ever installed, which went well beyond the standard commercial limitations of 6 000 metres.

Vescovo discovered Sammy B alongside UK-based Eyos Expeditions, and said that it was an “extraordinary honour to locate this incredibly famous ship”. The discovery allowed for a “chance to retell her story of heroism and duty to those who may not know of the ship and her crew’s sacrifice”.

Check out the shipwreck’s torpedo tubes:

Image: Caladan Oceanic and Eyos Expeditions/AFP/Getty Images

And the gun mount:

Image: Caladan Oceanic and Eyos Expeditions/AFP/Getty Images

As well as the pilot house:

Image: AP/Caladan Oceanic

Time for a brief history lesson:

The Sammy B took part in the Battle off Samar, the final phase of the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, in which the Japanese imperial navy suffered its biggest loss of ships and failed to dislodge the US forces from Leyte, which they invaded earlier as part of the liberation of the Philippines.

According to some records, the destroyer disabled a Japanese heavy cruiser with a torpedo and significantly damaged another. After having spent virtually all its ammunition, she was critically hit by the lead battleship Yamato and sank.

89 men out of the 224-man crew died. The captain, Lt Cmdr Robert W Copeland, was among those saved.

The site of Sammy B has been described as a “hallowed war grave” by Samuel J Cox, a retired admiral and naval historian.

Cox reckons the shipwreck serves as a reminder of the “great cost born by previous generations for the freedom we take for granted today”.

[source:guardian]