Latest news with #navalhistory
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Boy Discovers Wreck of 275-Year-Old Ship, Once Deployed During the American Revolution, While Out on a Beach Jog
Records reveal that the vessel ultimately sank in the North Sea on April 29, 1788NEED TO KNOW A schoolboy found the wreckage of a 275-year-old ship while running on a beach in Scotland He discovered the ship's hull after a storm in February 2024 Researchers were recently able to identify the whaling ship as the Earl of Chatham — formerly a naval ship — which sank in the North Sea on April 29, 1788A schoolboy running along a beach in Scotland made an incredible discovery — a 275-year-old ship that once belonged to the British Royal Navy. He discovered the ship's hull in February 2024 after a storm in Sanday, one of the small Orkney Islands off the country's northernmost tip. However, researchers were only recently able to solve the mystery of where it came from, according to the Associated Press. After the boy's initial discovery of a large section of the hull, residents of the 500-person island came together to help preserve what was left of the wreck. Local farmers used tractors and trailers to haul the 12 tons of oak timbers off the sand, and local historians then dived into an intense period of research to hopefully identify the ship and how it came to be on their local beach. 'That was really good fun, and it was such a good feeling about the community — everybody pulling together to get it back,' one of the island's community researchers, Sylvia Thorne, told AP. 'Quite a few people are really getting interested in it and becoming experts.' Researchers dated the wood on the ship to the mid-1700s — specifically from southern England — which allowed them to eliminate non-British ships from their search. They then eliminated shipwrecks that were too small or that would have originated from the wrong part of the country, and it led them to identify the vessel as the whaling ship the Earl of Chatham. The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! However, further research revealed that before the ship was the Earl of Chatham, it was the HMS Hind, a 24-gun Royal Navy ship built in 1749. The HMS Hind was active in the British sieges of Louisbourg and Quebec in the 1750s and was also deployed by the British during the American Revolution in the 1770s, per AP. The vessel was ultimately sold and used as a whaling ship in the Arctic Circle until it eventually sank in a storm on the North Sea on April 29, 1788, according to The Guardian. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Experts consider the ship 'lucky' — despite its demise. All 56 crew members survived the shipwreck, and its time at sea was 'amazingly long-lived,' given the period and conditions in which it was active, according to Ben Saunders, senior marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, per The Guardian. Saunders also noted that researchers and local community members were additionally fortunate because there happened to be so much archival information that helped them positively identify the vessel. 'We're lucky to have so much archive material, because of the period and because of where it wrecked in Orkney. It's been very satisfying,' he added. Read the original article on People Solve the daily Crossword
BBC News
31-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Plait of Lord Admiral Nelson's hair up for auction in Anglesey
A lock of Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson's hair found in a skip more than 40 years ago is going under the hammer. Born in 1758, Nelson was a national hero famous for his naval victories against the French during the Napoleonic by a 1911 hand written letter from a professor which claims it's a "genuine relic", the lock of plaited hair is expected to fetch about £400 to £500. Simon Bower, auctioneer at Morgan Evans and Co, in Gaerwen, Anglesey, told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast the plait was found alongside a letter in a recycling skip, by a "local chap" in the 1980s, who has kept it in his possession until now. Lord Nelson, from Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, joined the navy aged 12, on a ship commanded by a maternal as a national hero, his most famous engagement, at Cape Trafalgar, saved Britain from threat of invasion by Napoleon, but it was his was killed by a French sniper while leading the attack on the combined French and Spanish fleet. Mr Bower described the hair lock as an amazing find, which was "definitely a rarity". He said the man had it in his possession since the 1980s, where he was working at a recycling skip. "These days you need permission to take things out of skips, in 80s you could salvage what you want," he said such relics can range in price, from mid to high hundreds, up to a couple of thousands, but lot of it "depends on background" of the item."It will be interesting to see whether it goes to the museum or a private collection, but at the end of the day you just want it to be appreciated."
The Independent
21-07-2025
- General
- The Independent
WWII Japanese Navy destroyer found 83 years after it sank
A Japanese navy destroyer torpedoed during a crucial Second World War battle has finally been discovered on the Pacific Ocean floor 80 years after it sank. The Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki sank in 1942 while transporting supplies to soldiers in the Solomon Islands. Measuring over 134m (440ft) long, Teruzuki was the Imperial Japanese Navy 's second Akizuki-class destroyer built with air-search radar. Such ships mainly acted as escorts with anti-aircraft screening abilities for main battle ships. Teruzuki was sunk in December 1942 by US torpedoes while transporting food for soldiers in Guadalcanal, also called 'Gato' or the island of starvation. After it was hit by torpedoes, a detonation broke the rudder and one propeller shaft, disabling the ship. Then a ruptured oil tank caught on fire, setting ablaze ammunition and causing an explosion. Nearly 350 crew members survived, most rescued by other nearby Japanese destroyers, but 10 died. Since Imperial Japan 's naval vessel plans were a tightly held secret, there are no historical images of Teruzuki and the latest survey is the first ever to get a glimpse of the vessel for this generation. A US marine research team has finally found Teruzuki's wreck in a sea area known as the Iron Bottom Sound, which was the stage of five major naval battles between August and December 1942 that led to the loss of over 20,000 lives, 111 naval vessels, and 1,450 planes. However, fewer than 100 of these US, Japanese, Australian, and New Zealand military ships and planes have been located in this marine location of an area less than 25 nautical miles wide, 40 nautical miles long, and 1,400 meters deep. "Iron Bottom Sound was the scene of five ferocious major night surface battles, resulting in the loss of dozens of ships and thousands of men. Both sides showed extreme courage and tenacity, although in the end the U.S. Navy and allies prevailed, at enormous cost,' said Samuel J. Cox, a retired US Navy rear admiral. Two Akizuki-class destroyers were known to have sunk in the Solomon Islands during WWII. Since the other one was already discovered, researchers concluded the latest finding was Teruzuki 's wreck. Earlier this month, a team of US and Japanese marine researchers conducted the first visual scan of the destroyer since it sank. 'This is the first time anyone has laid eyes on Teruzuki since it was sunk in WWII's battles off Guadalcanal, with surveyed details rewriting the ship's final hours,' researchers wrote. The marine scientists found that Teruzuki's bow had collapsed to one side, and most of her superstructure had fallen off to one side. Several features of the sunken ship match testimonies of former crew members who survived its sinking. The numbers and positions of gun turrets on the wrecked remains were also found to be the same as on Teruzuki.
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
USS New Orleans bow found 83 years after it was blown off in WWII
A team of researchers have located the final resting place of the bow of a US Navy ship that was nearly destroyed during World War II . The bow of the USS New Orleans was blown off by a Japanese torpedo in a 1942 battle that resulted in an Axis victory. Nearly 83 years later, scientists and explorers with the Ocean Exploration Trust found the forward section of the ship around 2,200 feet underwater in the Iron Bottom Sound, a body of water in the Solomon Islands. 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.
CBS News
08-07-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Severed bow of famed U.S. ship torpedoed in WWII found on Pacific seafloor
The severed bow of the famed American warship USS New Orleans has been found by researchers during seafloor mapping operations in the Pacific Ocean. The bow was discovered resting about 675 meters deep in the Solomon Islands' Iron Bottom Sound, the site of five major naval battles, the Ocean Exploration Trust said Tuesday in a statement. Scientific collaborators, including archaeologists and experts from all the former combatant nations, spent four hours imaging the site to assess whether the bow came from the embattled USS New Orleans. They found distinctive details in the ship's structure, painting and anchor, which allowed them to positively identify the bow. The bow wreckage now supports a biodiverse community of deep-sea corals, anemones, and basket stars, utilizing the hull as their habitat. Ocean Exploration Trust/ Nautilus Live, NOAA "This imagery was viewed in real-time by hundreds of experts around the world, who all worked together to make a positive identification of the findings," aid Ocean Exploration Trust's chief scientist Daniel Wagner. "The discovery highlights the power of having multiple scientists and technologies work together to achieve a common goal." From the control room of Exploration Vessel Nautilus, the Ocean Exploration Trust team of scientists, engineers, historians, educators, and students are exploring shipwrecks of the Iron Bottom Sound. Ocean Exploration Trust The first of seven New Orleans-class heavy cruisers built during the 1930s, the USS New Orleans saw some of the heaviest fighting during the Pacific war, beginning on Dec. 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor. The commanding officer wrote at the time that the crew helped thwart a dive-bombing attack by about 10 enemy planes, and "the action of the crew under fire was most commendable." The USS New Orleans then moved on to battle in various locations, including the Battle of Midway, before returning to the Solomons. USS New Orleans (CA-32), the flagship of the New Orleans class of heavy cruisers, was heavily damaged in the WWII Battle of Tassafarronga at Guadalcanal when hit by a Japanese torpedo, catastrophically detonating the forward magazines and tearing off nearly one-third of the ship, including the bow. U.S. National Archives USS New Orleans' bow hasn't been seen since November 1942, during the World War II Battle of Tassafaronga, offshore of Guadalcanal, when a Japanese torpedo slammed into the ship. It tore off nearly one-third of the ship, including the bow, and killed over 180 crew members. The crew managed to get the ship into a good enough condition to sail for Australia for repairs, according to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. On March 7, 1943, the USS New Orleans headed to Puget Sound Navy Yard, where a new bow was fitted and the battle damage repaired. "By all rights, this ship should have sunk, but due to the heroic damage control efforts of her crew, USS New Orleans became the most grievously damaged U.S. cruiser in WWII to actually survive," said Naval History and Heritage Command Director Samuel J. Cox, retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral, in a statement. "To find the bow of this ship is an opportunity to remember the sacrifice of this valiant crew, even on one of the worst nights in U.S. Navy history."
