SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO—According to a Live Science report, maritime archaeologists Jason Raupp and Dominic Bush of the archaeological nonprofit Ships of Discovery have found three World War II–era shipwrecks in the northern Pacific Ocean, in the area of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. The researchers employed an advanced sonar and software processing system that produced 3-D scans of the seafloor in their search for the wrecks. Two of the vessels they discovered were Japanese freighters sunk by bombs dropped by American aircraft in 1942. The Kotohira Maru was found under about 300 feet of water, while the Cheribon Maru was found in shallow water near the shore. The third vessel, resting under 300 feet of water, was the SS Dellwood, which had been laying undersea cables for a new air base on the island when it struck an uncharted underwater pillar and sank in 1943, after the defeat of the Japanese at the Battle of Attu. The survey also found evidence that anti-submarine nets had been placed in Attu’s main port to protect it from attacks by Japanese submarines, Bush added. “We would have needed weeks to achieve the same result using standard sonar,” Raupp concluded. To read more about the Aleutian campaign and the undisturbed battlefield on the island of Kiska, go to "Letter from Alaska: The Cold Winds of War."
