USS New Orleans bow found 83 years after it was blown off in WWII
The Solomon Islands is an archipelago of hundreds of islands east of Papua New Guinea and northeast of Australia. Experts aboard the Nautilus exploration vessel voyaged into the Iron Bottom Sound, which is already home to over 100 World War II shipwrecks, and took high resolution images of the sunken bow.
At that point they weren't certain of what they'd stumbled across, but after archaeologists worked to identify details of its paint, structure and anchor, they were eventually able to positively identify the bow as once belonging to the USS New Orleans. 'The wreck was located during seafloor mapping operations by an uncrewed surface vehicle, then investigated shortly thereafter by a deep-diving remotely operated vehicle,' Ocean Exploration Trust's Chief Scientist Daniel Wagner said in a statement.
In the November 1942 naval engagement now known as the Battle of Tassafaronga, the US Navy and Japanese Imperial Navy faced off at nighttime. A fleet of nine ships, including the USS New Orleans, intercepted eight Japanese destroyers trying to deliver food to their forces on the nearby island of Guadalcanal. US cruisers fired first, but this exposed their position, which led to a bloody battle on both sides. However, the Japanese quickly gained the upper hand, sinking one US heavy cruiser and damaging three more.
One of the three that were damaged was the USS New Orleans. It was hit by a 'Long Lance' torpedo, tearing off nearly a third of the ship and killing 183 sailors. Three US crew members would die because they valiantly stayed at their posts as the ship flooded and managed to stop it from sinking.
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