A mysterious car, the first Battle of Midway warplanes to be found under water and a mural reflecting sailors’ pride in their aircraft-carrier were all surprise discoveries on a deep WW2 wreck last weekend.
That is when an ROV dived through the 5km-deep wreckage of USS Yorktown, as part of an expedition conducted by the NOAA Ocean Exploration team.
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The discoveries were made on 19-20 April using the Deep Discoverer ROV deployed from the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer. The dives were part of the Papahanaumokuakea ROV & Mapping Expedition, taking place some 1,600km from Honolulu in the north-western Hawaiian Islands of the Pacific.
USS Yorktown (CV-5) saw action in a number of WW2 operations before being sunk by a Japanese submarine following the Battle of Midway, with the deaths of 141 men. The wreck was found in 1998 during a joint US Navy and National Geographic expedition led by Robert Ballard.
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In September 2023 Divernet reported on a ‘characterisation’ mission to the remains of the 250m-long carrier led by Ocean Exploration Trust from the exploration vessel Nautilus, but the recent dives were the first to explore the vessel’s hangar deck.
“The dives in 2025 built on this previous work, providing answers to existing questions and resulting in new mysteries for historians and scientists to puzzle out,” stated NOAA.
Was it a Woody?
A big surprise for the team came when they spotted the faint outline of a car while peering into the aft hangar deck from the port side.
With the help of experts onshore they later tentatively identified it as a black 1940-41 Ford Super Deluxe ‘Woody’ – but have invited others to let them know if they have other ideas.
The words “SHIP SERVICE – NAVY” could be seen on part of the car’s front plate. One theory is that Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher, Captain Elliott Buckmaster or other officers might have used it while conducting business in foreign ports.
However, the mystery is why it would have remained stowed in the hangar deck after the ship’s 48hr stop at Pearl Harbor for repairs, when she was known to be heading to the Battle of Midway.
During the battle, desperate attempts had to made to correct a list to the carrier by jettisoning aircraft and guns, so the team wondered whether the car had some significance that stopped it from being thrown overboard as well.
Aircraft and world map
Also resulting from the ROV dives was the first-ever discovery of aircraft lying under water on the Midway battlefield.
Despite numerous entanglement hazards, Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration ROV pilots were able to access Yorktown’s hangar deck via the ship’s no 3 elevator shaft. There in the aft starboard quarter they found the jumbled wreckage of at least three Douglas SBD Dauntless dive-bombers.
One of these was still fully armed, lying inverted with a bomb in the release cradle. Another plane, clearly marked ‘B5’ on its fuselage, was thought to be BuNo 4581, an SBD-3 assigned to Bombing Squadron Six from USS Enterprise (CV-6).
In the confusion of battle, Yorktown had recovered two of Enterprise’s aircraft that had been badly damaged while attacking the Japanese aircraft-carrier Kaga. These were later set alight when three enemy bombs struck Yorktown.
Also for the first time, images were obtained of a 13 x 3.5m mural depicting a world map displaying all of USS Yorktown’s voyages. This had been hand-painted inside an elevator shaft, though it had only ever been partially visible in historic photographs.
“Its motifs showcase the pride that Yorktown’s sailors had for their ship, the global scale of Yorktown’s activities, and the strategic role that the ship played in defending the United States,” said NOAA.
The wreck of USS Yorktown is a protected sunken military craft managed by the US Naval History & Heritage Command and designated a Site of Extraordinary Character.
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