It lies over four miles deep below the Pacific Ocean, split in half, sitting on a slope
It's also now the world's deepest shipwreck to be identified and surveyed
Of course, I'm talking about the WWII
USS destroyer escort Samuel B Roberts DE-413 nicknamed the 'Sammy B'
The Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 is definitely regarded
as one of the largest naval battles... Ever
and the tiny destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts was in the center of all of that action
Ultimately the ship sank in the Battle off Samar on October 25th, 1944
in which the US Navy defeated the much larger
Imperial Japanese Navy fleet east of the Philippines
But if we're just meeting for the first time, my name is Ken Stano
and I am a World War Two historian and mechanical engineer
The Samuel B. Roberts took on three Japanese battleships, including the Yamato...
The largest ever constructed at over 65,000 tons with over 3,000 crew members
By comparison, the much smaller Samuel B Roberts weighed just 1,300 tons
and carried only 224 crew members
Unfortunately 89 crew members from the Samuel B Roberts were killed, however 135 survived.
Lieutenant Commander Robert W Copeland, the Sammy B's Captain, was one of those survivors
He was an attorney, a lawyer, right before WW2
At the time of this battle he was in his mid-30s
And take a look at this picture... the guy was the ultimate badass!
Explorers located the wreck this week on Wednesday, June 22nd
It lies at a depth of 6,900 meters,
nearly 23,000 feet, or 4 1/2 miles under the Philippine sea in the Pacific ocean.
Previously the deepest wreck ever identified and surveyed was found just last year
from the same battle...
The famed destroyer USS Johnston now lies at 6,500 meters, or 21,000 feet
Explorers dove down to the Sammy B to trace the wreck from end to end
It has broken into two pieces, lying about 10 meters, or 33 feet from each other
Now here's a little history...
The Samuel B Roberts heroically fought alongside the tin can destroyers USS Johnston
and USS Hoel as part of the task force known as Taffy 3.
Despite being completely outclassed by the Japanese battleships and heavy cruisers,
the bravery of the Sammy B's captain and crew is now legendary in the US Navy
The exploration team made six dives over eight days
Initially they located debris from the Roberts,
including a three-tube torpedo launcher...
...which is important because the Samuel B. Roberts was the only one of the sunken ships to have one
On the final day they located the wreck
It's amazing to see the Samuel B Roberts after it went down in battle almost 80 years ago
Locating the ship gives us the chance to revisit this iconic World War II story
The Sammy B is a small vessel, as military ships go
and the team wasn't sure they'd find her in the vast and extremely deep ocean where she went down
Combining historic detective work
with the latest in deep-ocean diving technology made this discovery possible
Now I cannot help but think there are going to be more amazing
shipwreck discoveries to come, because this team also went lower, to over 7,000 meters,
to look for another vessel from that same incredible battle off Samar...
... a US aircraft carrier called the Gambier Bay
The team was not able to locate it, but stay tuned!
Check-out this video footage revealed last year when they reached the destroyer USS Johnston
I just have a feeling more amazing shipwreck news is right around the corner
If you want to learn more about these amazing WWII destroyer escorts, check out the USS Slater
I'll have a link to their YouTube channel in the description below
My name is Ken Stano. Thank you for checking out History X!