The ship – the US Navy destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts – was off the coast of Samar Island, in the Philippine Sea, on Wednesday. The Roberts, affectionately known as the “Sammy B,” was rediscovered by Texan billionaire and retired naval officer Victor Vescovo and his firm Caladan Oceanic. An avid submarine explorer, Mr. Vescovo is no stranger to the deep ocean, having visited the deepest points of the Earth’s oceans during his 2018-19 “Five Deeps Expedition”.
On Twitter, Mr Vescovo shared a video – filmed from his deep-diving sub – showing the wreck of the Roberts on the seabed.
He wrote: “It seems her bow hit the seabed with some force, causing her to nod.
“Her stern also separated about five meters at the impact, but the whole wreckage was stuck together.
“This little ship took on the best of the Japanese Navy and fought them to the end.”
The Roberts was part of the relatively light fleet of destroyers, destroyer escorts and escort ships that were accidentally left behind to face a 23-ship fleet of heavily armed Japanese battleships, cruisers and destroyers during the Battle of Samar, during World War II, at October 25, 1944.
This battle—described by historians as one of the greatest final battles in naval history—was part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf and saw the unprepared American forces gain the upper hand over the formidable armada of the Center Force of the United States. Imperial Japanese Navy.
The Roberts took a number of hits against the enemy fleet, including blowing off the stern of the heavy cruiser Chōkai and setting fire to the bridge of the heavy cruiser Chikuma.
However, she was fatally fired upon by the battleship Kongō, resulting in a 40-foot-long and 10-foot-wide hole being torn into the port side of her aft engine room.
She sank at 10:05 a.m., with 90 hands lost. Her survivors – 120 of them – clung to three life rafts for 50 hours before being rescued.
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The Roberts was the first of three ships named in honor of US Navy mate Samuel Booker Roberts Jr. from San Francisco, who fought in World War II from 1940-1942.
On September 27, 1942, Mr. Roberts volunteered for a rescue mission on Guadalcanal Island to rescue a company-sized unit of Marines surrounded by a larger Japanese force.
To divert enemy fire from the landing craft gathering the Marines, the helmsman sailed his boat directly in front of the Japanese lines.
Although the maneuver proved effective – all Marines had been successfully evacuated – Mr Roberts was wounded when he retreated from enemy firing range and died the following day.
Mr. Roberts was awarded the Navy Cross for bravery under enemy fire.