Researchers from the University of Hawaii have rediscovered a historic "ghost ship" about 2,000 feet under the ocean off Hawaii's Oahu Island.
Using a submersible vehicle, researchers found the area where the former cable ship Dickenson, later named the USS Kailua, sank after being torpedoed nearly 70 years ago, university experts announced Friday.
"It is always a thrill when you are closing in on a large sonar target with the Pisces submersible, and you don't know what big piece of history is going to come looming out of the dark," Terry Kerby, a submersible pilot from the Undersea Research Laboratory at the university, said in a statement.
The Dickenson was used to repair cables to help maintain an international network of submarine telecommunications, according to the statement. The ship was intentionally torpedoed in 1946, but it's final underwater location was never recorded.
"This ship was surprisingly intact for a vessel that was sunk with a torpedo," Kerby said. "The upper deck structures from the bow to the stern were well-preserved and showed no signs of torpedo damage."
The Dickenson sailed its maiden voyage from Pennsylvania in 1923 as part of a fleet of ships for the Commercial Pacific Cable Company. It arrived in Hawaii, and from there it delivered supplies and repaired cables at the remote islands of Midway and Fanning until 1941, according to the statement.
During World War II, the ship was commissioned to evacuate employees for a British telecommunications company from its Fanning Island station out of fear it would be attacked by Germany. The company, Cable and Wireless Ltd., had its stations targeted by Germany during the first World War.
The Dickenson arrived with the evacuees at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, barely skirting the harbor's fateful bombing that occurred that morning.
Meanwhile, the war had rendered Midway Island useless, paving the way for the Dickenson to go from being used as a cable repair ship to a U.S. Navy vessel, according to the statement. It was renamed the USS Kailua and was used to service cables in the South Pacific.
By the time the war ended, neither the Navy nor the Commercial Cable Company wanted the ship, so it was blasted with a submarine torpedo in February 1946.
"From her interisland service to her role in the Pacific communications and then World War II, Dickenson today is like a museum exhibit resting in the darkness, reminding us of these specific elements of Pacific history," said Hans Van Tilburg of the maritime heritage program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
