Posted on 04/02/2009 7:27:55 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The wreck of the first US ship sunk during World War II has been revealed in detail for the first time on the seabed off southeastern Australia, researchers said Wednesday.
Images of the merchant vessel City of Rayville, which was sunk in 1940 by a German mine, were taken by state-of-the-art sonar technology and remotely operated vehicles, Deakin University scientists said.
"It was very exciting to see the City of Rayville for the first time," said lead researcher Daniel Ierodiaconou.
The wreck could possibly still contain the remains of the first US sailor to die in the war -- more than a year before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour brought the US into the conflict, Ierodiaconou told AFP.
The 6,000-tonne City of Rayville was carrying a cargo of lead, wool and copper from South Australia to New York via Melbourne when it struck a mine in a newly-laid German minefield in the Bass Strait on November 8, 1940.
The ship went down in 70 metres (230 feet) of water off Cape Otway, just 24 hours after the British steamer SS Cambridge sank after hitting a mine off the nearby Wilsons Promontory in Victoria state.
"The approximate location (of the City of Rayville) has been fairly well known for quite some time," Ierodiaconou told AFP.
But for the first time, the team used sonar technology to develop detailed three-dimensional models of the wreck and collected video using a remotely operated vehicle, he said.
All 38 crew managed to make it into lifeboats and were rescued but one went back to gather his personal belongings and went down with the ship, meaning that his remains could still be in the wreck, Ierodiaconou said.
"The wreck is laying upright on its keel, with a slight list to one side," said Cassandra Philippou.
(Excerpt) Read more at tech.yahoo.com ...
Ping
What about the USS Panay?
The first U.S. ship sunk during WWII was the SS City of Rayville which struck a German-laid mine off Australia on Nov. 9, 1940, killing one mariner.
I always thought it was the Reuben James ...
Then wouldn't it be the second ship?
First American ship is what they meant.
Heck, I thought it was the USS Panay, Dec 12, 1937.
See “The Rape of Nanking.”
While there is some debate, few historians regard events in China between 1937 and 1939 as part of the Second World War. Rather they were part of the Second Sino-Japanese War. As SJWII wound up as part of WWII, certainly a case can be made for connecting them, but the balance of historical consensus views them as separate wars at that time.
...off southeastern Australia... sunk in 1940 by a German mineWow, a *German* minefield, it really was a World War. :'o
Not that the Germans didn't threaten American shipping, but that was in the Atlantic, not the Pacific. The Pacific location of the mine suggests that it was much more likely to have been Japanese.
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