Search team closes in on WWII wreck
THE wreck of a long lost ship that sank during World War II may have been discovered by scientists in the Coral Sea.
The USS Neosho came under attack by Japanese carrier aircraft during the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, and was left to sink.
One hundred and eighty crew members on board the supply ship died, and 123 were rescued before it was scuttled by the USS Henley, to keep it out of enemy hands.
The wreck has never been found.
However it was a target of scientists on board CSIRO’S RV Investigator, which has returned from a 30-day voyage into the Coral Sea.
James Cook University researcher Dr Robin Beaman, who led a mapping team on board the vessel, believed they found the wreck in about 3km of water, about 1000km northeast of Cairns, using state-ofthe-art technology.
The exact geographic position of the Neosho will not be made public, at the request of the US Naval History and Heritage Command.
The likely resting place of the Neosho was found near that of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, which was also sunk during the same battle and only discovered last year. Dr Beaman said absolute confirmation of the discovery of the Neosho cannot be given until an underwater vehicle with a deepwater camera is sent to the site to confirm a visual reading.
“We were very fortunate to find it,” he said.
“I think we had a combination of good weather, one of the world’s best multi-beam echo sounders and a really good team,” he said
“More importantly, the sea floor was very flat, and sediment covered.
“So it was relatively easy to pick out background features sitting above the sea floor.
“So we got this image back that indicated there was a ship sitting there.”
Crew members on board the Investigator held a short memorial service after the wreck was discovered, in tribute to the Neosho’s lost crew members.
Dr Beaman said the wreck was not the only remarkable discovery during the Investigator’s voyage, with amazing silica sponges brought up from the depths by the ship’s dredges.
“The strangest things we saw were these really large silica sponges, about 1m tall,” he said.
“They had a stalk, that was twisted like undersea cable for fibre optics.
“The first time we brought it up, we thought we’d severed someone’s internet connection.”
Biological specimens brought up from the depths during the Investigator’s expedition into the Coral Sea are being investigated by the Queensland Museum.