A team of American explorers have completed the world’s deepest shipwreck dive reaching the wreck of an 80-year-old US navy destroyer sunk in WWII at nearly twice the depth in which the Titanic rests in the Atlantic Ocean.
It's been so wonderful to share the story of the USS Johnston with so many people. Her crew and Captain, Ernest Evans – the first Native American in the Navy to be awarded the Medal of Honor, were extraordinarily heroic. Here's video from the dive and the bridge they fought from. pic.twitter.com/rAfEh78VJv
— Victor Vescovo (@VictorVescovo) April 4, 2021
Undersea tech company Caladan Oceanic completed two eight-hour dives almost 6.5km’s under the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of the Philippines.
The USS Johnston was sunk on October 25, 1944, with the loss of 186 of its 327 crew members, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf after taking fire from the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato.
The wreck was discovered in 2019 by a separate team, and only a small part of the site was surveyed at the time by a remote submersible due to its hard to reach location.
Just completed the deepest wreck dive in history, to find the main wreckage of the destroyer USS Johnston. We located the front 2/3 of the ship, upright and intact, at a depth of 6456 meters. Three of us across two dives surveyed the vessel and gave respects to her brave crew. pic.twitter.com/N1AuzHIi0b
— Victor Vescovo (@VictorVescovo) April 1, 2021
Caladan Oceanic used their own crewed submersible called a DSM Limiting Factor for their exploration.
The craft has a hull made of 3.5-inch thick titanium and has previously been used to explore the Mariana Trench as well as the Titanic.
