The U.S.S. Edsall, an American destroyer that played an important role early in the Pacific theater during World War II and was sunk by Japanese forces, killing more than 200 American servicemen, has been found at the bottom of the Indian Ocean near Australia, the U.S. government announced on Monday.
During a battle off the coast of Australia in March 1942, the Edsall dodged more than 1,000 Japanese shells before it was struck by 26 carrier dive bombers and sank to the ocean floor, according to the announcement from the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Australia. The ship’s remains, along with those of the 185 U.S. Navy personnel and 31 U.S. Army Air Force personnel on the ship who died, had been missing for more than 80 years, the Navy said.
“This is part of our continuing efforts to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Australia, said in a statement. “We will now be able to preserve this important memorial and hope that the families of the heroes who died there will know their loved ones rest in peace.”
The Royal Australian Navy, in collaboration with the U.S. Navy, found the shipwreck using advanced robotic and autonomous systems, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, the chief of the Royal Australian Navy, said in the statement. Australian naval vessels in the area used the technology, which is normally used for hydrographic survey capabilities, he said.
The Australian navy found the wreck while conducting an unrelated and unspecified mission in the area, NBC News reported.
At just 314 feet in length, the Edsall, a slight ship with a blue-gray metal exterior, moved at a “very respectable” 35 knots, which allowed it to evade enemy attacks, the historical website Naval History and Heritage Command said. But in early March 1942, about two decades after it was built, the Edsall was surprised by two Japanese battleships near Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, just south of the Indonesian island of Java, the Navy historical site said.
“The last report from the Edsall placed her in waters south of Java,” The New York Times wrote in a front-page story on March 25, 1942, about the ship’s destruction. The Edsall was sunk by “Japanese ships or planes in attempts to get out of the Java Sea after the defeat and reach Australian waters,” The Times said.
In its futile effort to avoid enemy shells, the Edsall laid a crafty smoke screen and conducted “radical and unpredictable maneuvers,” the Navy historical site said. The ship’s survival efforts drew admiration from the Japanese forces, and the Edsall earned the nickname the “dancing mouse,” after a domesticated pet that was popular in Japan, the site added.
Named after Norman Edsall, a sailor in the U.S. Navy who died during the Spanish-American War, the Edsall conducted several successful missions in the first months of the war. It helped sink important Japanese vessels, including at least one submarine, Mr. Hammond said.
The ship’s remains were found last year, the U.S. Naval Institute said. But it was not announced until Monday, which was both Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in Australia and Britain.
In her statement commending the discovery, Lisa Franchetti, the chief of naval operations, quoted the U.S. Navy tenet by which, she said, the U.S. Edsall lived and died: “Don’t give up the ship.”
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