It seems fighter planes and bombers weren’t the only vehicles aboard a famous U.S. Navy aircraft carrier that was sunk during World War II.
A crew exploring the USS Yorktown at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean recently came across the unexpected sight of a Ford automobile in the ship’s hangar. The discovery was first made April 19 during an ongoing month-long expedition led by NOAA Ocean Exploration when the crew sent a remotely-operated vehicle to explore the iconic Navy warship in the depths of the ocean.
USS Yorktown, which Japanese forces hit with torpedoes following the pivotal Battle of Midway in June 1942, has been explored several times since its final resting place was discovered in 1998. But the most recent operation was the first to delve into the ship’s hangar.
The baffling sight of the car inside the hangar came amid a larger expedition led by a team from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The crew aboard a converted Navy vessel known as the Okeanos Explorer have since April 8 been mapping and exploring unexplored deepwater regions of Hawaii.
The USS Yorktown, which could hold up to 2,200 personnel and 90 aircraft, was part of several operations during World War II after it was first commissioned in 1937.
Damaged in the famous naval Battle of the Midway – a seminal clash between sea and air power – the carrier was ultimately sunk when a Japanese submarine torpedoed the ship while it was being hauled back to Pearl Harbor. The Yorktown’s final resting place wasn’t discovered until a 1998 expedition found it about 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu.
The most recent glimpse of the Yorktown wreckage came April 19 and 20 when explorers on the NOAA expedition sent a remotely-operated vehicle down to record new observations. The team anticipated seeing marine life, wrecked aircraft and other features inside the carrier, but they weren’t expecting to come across a car.
After the remote vehicle first spotted the upright automobile while peering through the hangar deck from the Yorktown’s port side, the crew sent it back the next day to get a better look.
That’s what allowed the explorers to identify the car as a black 1940-41 Ford Super Deluxe, colloquially known as a “Woody.” On the front license plate were the words “SHIP SERVICE ___ NAVY,” according to NOAA.
That feature is what prompted the team of researchers to theorize that the car could have been reserved for Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, as the Yorktown served as his flagship during World War II. Ship Captain Elliott Buckmaster or other ship crew could even have used it while Yorktown was docked at foreign ports, NOAA’s team guessed.
Questions remain though, about why the car was stowed on the hangar deck at all when the ship’s officers knew it was heading to the Battle of Midway. Also puzzling is why the vehicle wasn’t jettisoned with anti-aircraft guns and aircraft in an attempt to salvage the listing ship after it was damaged in the fighting.
The dive to explore the USS Yorktown was part of a larger expedition in Papahānaumokuākea, a nationally protected area encompassing 583,000 square miles of ocean waters near the northwestern Hawaiian islands.
During the exploration of the Yorktown, the team was able to image a famous hand-painted mural of a world map depicting the ship’s voyages that had only partially been visible in historic photographs. The expedition also led to the first underwater discovery of aircraft on the Midway battlefield.
Researchers even got a look at some of the marine life that have made the remnants of the aircraft carrier their home.
The 28-day mission began April 8 and is due to end May 5. You can follow along with livestreams available on the expedition’s website.
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com