Spring Break
A&M researchers locate WWII sub
By: Natalie Younts and Shawn Millender
Issue date: 6/10/04 Section: News
Texas A&M researchers have located the Japanese submarine that sank the USS Indianapolis near the Marianas Islands on July 30, 1945.
The submarine, I-58, was discovered in April, 50 miles off the coast of Nagasaki, 675 feet underwater by William Bryant, an oceanography professor, and Brett Phaneuf, an oceanography graduate student.
The Discovery Channel funded the project and will air a special on it in January 2005. Phaneuf said a film-production company, Parallax, which was working with the Discovery Channel, contacted the researchers about a year ago.
"They had seen some of the work we've done," Phaneuf said. "They thought we'd be the right guys. We had the expertise technologically to help them."
The company wanted the A&M oceanography department's help in locating 24 Japanese submarines.
The I-58 sank the Indianapolis two weeks before the end of the war, according to the Naval Historical Center in Washington.
When the Japanese surrendered, ending World War II, the United States inherited the submarines. The United States kept the submarines in a naval harbor in, Sasebo Bay, Japan.
The U.S. Navy and the Allies did not want the Soviet Union to have access to the Japanese submarines because they were significantly more technologically advanced than the Soviet submarines, Phaneuf said.
On a secret mission, the United States intentionally scuttled, or sank, the submarines, Phaneuf said.
The 24 submarines make up the largest and most diverse collection of World War II submarines, Phaneuf said.
"It's the largest collection of sunken submarines in the world," Bryant said. "We know where they are now."
The Indianapolis delivered the atomic bombs that were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Bryant said.
The USS Indianapolis disaster was responsible for the largest loss of lives caused by one ship sinking. Only 316 of the 1,199 aboard the Indianapolis were rescued, according to the Naval Historical Center.
The researchers found 12 of the 24 submarines during the mission.
They were not able to locate the other half during that time because of severe weather, Phaneuf said.
Bryant and Phaneuf will return to the area in the summer of 2005 to locate the rest of the submarines, Phaneuf said.
Phaneuf said people in their 20s are young enough to look back and study it technologically, historically and analytically.
Phaneuf said that in the future, he would like to locate the USS Indianapolis, although such an undertaking would cost millions of dollars.
The submarine, I-58, was discovered in April, 50 miles off the coast of Nagasaki, 675 feet underwater by William Bryant, an oceanography professor, and Brett Phaneuf, an oceanography graduate student.
The Discovery Channel funded the project and will air a special on it in January 2005. Phaneuf said a film-production company, Parallax, which was working with the Discovery Channel, contacted the researchers about a year ago.
"They had seen some of the work we've done," Phaneuf said. "They thought we'd be the right guys. We had the expertise technologically to help them."
The company wanted the A&M oceanography department's help in locating 24 Japanese submarines.
The I-58 sank the Indianapolis two weeks before the end of the war, according to the Naval Historical Center in Washington.
When the Japanese surrendered, ending World War II, the United States inherited the submarines. The United States kept the submarines in a naval harbor in, Sasebo Bay, Japan.
The U.S. Navy and the Allies did not want the Soviet Union to have access to the Japanese submarines because they were significantly more technologically advanced than the Soviet submarines, Phaneuf said.
On a secret mission, the United States intentionally scuttled, or sank, the submarines, Phaneuf said.
The 24 submarines make up the largest and most diverse collection of World War II submarines, Phaneuf said.
"It's the largest collection of sunken submarines in the world," Bryant said. "We know where they are now."
The Indianapolis delivered the atomic bombs that were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Bryant said.
The USS Indianapolis disaster was responsible for the largest loss of lives caused by one ship sinking. Only 316 of the 1,199 aboard the Indianapolis were rescued, according to the Naval Historical Center.
The researchers found 12 of the 24 submarines during the mission.
They were not able to locate the other half during that time because of severe weather, Phaneuf said.
Bryant and Phaneuf will return to the area in the summer of 2005 to locate the rest of the submarines, Phaneuf said.
Phaneuf said people in their 20s are young enough to look back and study it technologically, historically and analytically.
Phaneuf said that in the future, he would like to locate the USS Indianapolis, although such an undertaking would cost millions of dollars.
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