The Saber and Scroll
in late 1945 . 83 Fritz , awarded a Bronze Star for his World War II service , died in 1983 , at the age of sixty-three , fifteen years before the premiere of Saving Private Ryan . 84
Almost eighty years have passed since the tragic loss of the USS Juneau and her crew . In the intervening decades , no one has attempted to photograph the wreck . Unlike countless ships that have disappeared without a trace , the Juneau location was well documented : 10-33S , 161-03E . 85 No fewer than four individuals witnessed the explosion and noted the cruiser ’ s precise coordinates : San Francisco ’ s Lieutenant Commander Bruce McCandless , Helena ’ s skipper Captain Gilbert Hoover , the B-17 pilot , Lieutenant Robert Gill , and of course Commander Minoru Yokota of I-26 .
The explanation lies in the depth of the ocean in this part of the world . Unlike the shallow lagoons of Truk Atoll in the Caroline Islands and Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands , the depth of the Solomon Sea did not give up her secrets so easily . There was also the question of how much of the Juneau remained to be discovered . Recall that Robert Gill likened the torpedo magazine detonation to that of the atomic bomb blast . How could there be anything left to find ?
Enter the Research Vessel Petrel , owned and operated by Vulcan Inc ., a philanthropic venture of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen . Petrel began operating in the Western Pacific in 2015 and subsequently located and photographed some of the iconic shipwrecks of the Second World War . With stunning regularity , Allen-led expeditions explored USS Astoria ( February 2015 ), Japanese battleship IJN Musashi ( March 2015 ), the USS Indianapolis ( August 2017 ), and the aircraft carrier USS Lexington ( March 2018 ) lost at the Battle of Coral Sea . His team , under the direction of Robert Kraft , Director of Subsea Operations , was also responsible for retrieving the ship ’ s bell from the HMS Hood for presentation to the British Navy in honor of its heroic service .
In the spring of 2018 , Petrel arrived in the southern Solomon Sea , an area called “ Torpedo Junction ” by US sailors . Armed with the latest is sidescan sonar , remotely operated vehicles ( ROVs ), and autonomous underwater vehicles ( AUVs ), Allen completed a winning season and located the Juneau .
The Petrel ’ s AUV first identified the ship with its side-scan sonar on March 17 , 2018 . Upon analysis of the sonar data , the Petrel crew deployed its ROV the next day and verified the wreck ’ s identity with its high-definition video cameras . “ We certainly didn ’ t plan to find the Juneau on St . Patrick ’ s Day . The variables of these searches are just too great ,” said Kraft . 86
Juneau lies on her side at a depth of 4200m / 13,780ft , a little more than 2.5 miles down . 87 The video and still photos released by Vulcan , Inc . are of the aft one-third of the ship . Images show Juneau ’ s stern is surprisingly well preserved , but with the expected accumulation of marine organisms . The fact that the stern is still very much intact jives with survivor accounts and the
70