This seems like small pickings for Ballard. Wish he’d go back to the Pacific to find and document the USS Lexington, Wasp, Hornet and the Japanese carriers sunk at Midway.
I’d like to see the ship my great grandfather came to America on. The SS Mount Temple was sunk by the Germans in WWI. It was carrying a load of dinosaur bones.
I am really surprised Ballard was unaware German U-boats sank our ships off of our coast. I was taught that in junior high.
I had sailors on my ship that had fought in WWII as armed guard on merchant ships. They manned the mounted guns on merchant ships. The navy had what amounted to a hiring hall where the navy sailors (as opposed to the merchant sailors who had there own halls) would go to be assigned to merchant ships just before they sailed.
One of my sailors told me he saw a sailor, at the New York hall, assigned in the morning who then showed up in the evening soaking wet. His ship had been torpedoed, he was rescued and was then back waiting for his next assignment.