Wreck of Japanese WWII destroyer found in Solomon Islands

A team of explorers and scientists has located the wreck of a Japanese warship lying at a depth of 800 metres more than 80 years after it was lost in combat in the Solomon Islands.

The discovery of the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki is part of non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust's (OET) ongoing expedition to document potential underwater cultural heritage sites in Iron Bottom Sound, where an estimated 111 shipwrecks have been lying dormant since World War II.

The OET expedition has also resulted in the discovery of the original bow of the US Navy gun cruiser USS New Orleans in those same waters.

The wreckage identified as that of the missing Akizuki-class destroyer was discovered using remotely operated vehicles that had been tasked to investigate a target found during seafloor mapping operations by the University of New Hampshire’s uncrewed surface vessel DriX.

The team on the research vessel Nautilus found the wreck of Teruzuki within Iron Bottom Sound, so named due to the large number of ships that sank there during the Battle of Guadalcanal from late 1942 to early 1943.

The destroyer sank on December 15, 1942, following a series of successful torpedo attacks by US Navy PT boats, though only nine of the 353-strong crew were killed on the day of its loss.

OET said this is the first time anyone has laid eyes on Teruzuki since it was sunk off Guadalcanal. The organisation added that Japanese naval vessel plans were kept highly secret during the war, so much so that no historical images of Teruzuki exist today.