- 2 months ago
Search for the Japanese Fleet. ... Location: Midway Island. Subject: shipwrecks; World War II; Battle of Midway. Category.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Somewhere in these calm waters, more than 50 years ago, raged the greatest sea battle of World War II.
00:11The Battle of Midway changed the course of the war, ending Japan's westward advance and sending four of its aircraft carriers plunging to the ocean floor.
00:21Now, using state of the art technology, a team of experts plans to find and photograph at least one of these lost ships,
00:29which lie hidden more than three miles below the ocean surface.
00:44At the Nauticos Corporation in Calvert County, Maryland, scientists are working to solve a mystery that's over 50 years old.
00:51Using a combination of World War II submarine records, high-tech instrumentation, and Nauticos' own proprietary software,
01:01they intend to pinpoint, for the first time, the site of the Battle of Midway.
01:06Considered the most important U.S. naval battle of the modern era, the Battle of Midway in June of 1942 was the turning point in the Pacific theater.
01:15Outclassed by Japanese ships, firepower, and experience, the U.S. managed to turn a near disaster into a crippling blow from which the Japanese would not recover.
01:28When the smoke cleared, the balance of power had shifted to the U.S., where it would remain for the war's duration,
01:35and the jewels of Japan's carrier fleet lay on the ocean floor.
01:38The search for the battle site, led by Nauticos President Dave Jordan, centers on finding at least one of the four aircraft carriers lost to the Japanese fleet.
01:51The plan is to search the sea floor during two separate trips and return with conclusive photographic evidence.
01:58During the first trip, the team will spend a week aboard a Navy research vessel operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
02:08Using the latest in side-scan sonar technology, they will search for likely targets to focus on later.
02:15This first phase is both crucial to the project's success and a significant challenge, like locating an 800-foot needle in an ocean-sized haystack.
02:24We were independently pursuing a cooperative research and development agreement with the Naval Oceanographic Office.
02:31The Naval Oceanographic Office collects data. We survey the world's ocean, collecting data for the military for requirements that they have.
02:38We go anywhere from a shallow way near shore to deep water.
02:42And as it turns out, they had some opportunity to go to sea and test some of their systems in an area that was consistent with our operational project of Battle of Midway.
02:51Nauticos expertise has served historical interests before.
02:56Their specialty of locating objects on the ocean floor led to the discovery of the Japanese submarine I-52.
03:03Lost in the Atlantic during World War II, Nauticos, working for AU Holdings, founded in 1995 in 17,000 feet of water.
03:12In 1998, in a highly publicized discovery, Nauticos helped Israel find its submarine, Dakar, lost in the Mediterranean Sea more than 30 years before.
03:25At an impasse in their own search, Israel contacted Dave Jordan and Nauticos Executive Vice President Tom Detweiler.
03:32We were asked to go over to Israel and in the process got to know families who had been looking for 30 years for some way to locate their sons.
03:43And we supported the U.S. Navy in its offer of help to support this mission.
03:49In 1999, Nauticos successfully located the Dakar and in late 2000 raised the conning tower 9,000 feet to the surface.
03:59Probably the greatest reward was the thanks that we got from the families is something that meant an awful lot to us.
04:06Sitting at twice that depth, or roughly three and a half miles below the surface, the Japanese fleet poses a particular challenge for the search team.
04:14In addition to the problems of working in such deep water, few records exist to help estimate the surface location of the original battle.
04:25The aircraft that took part were unable to take accurate navigational data during the heat of battle.
04:31And any Japanese records were either destroyed after the war or went down with their ships in the final moments of this pivotal conflict.
04:38Today, however, modern technology offers hope that the fleet can be found despite the difficulties.
04:46In a strange irony, it was another technology but a much older one that was instrumental in sending the fleet to the bottom.
04:55In the spring of 1942, the Japanese naval forces appeared to be invincible.
05:01Since their victory at Pearl Harbor six months earlier, they had yet to lose a major battle.
05:08Swollen with confidence, the Japanese planned their assault on Midway as the penultimate battle for the region, a setup for a decisive finale.
05:18By attacking Midway, they hoped to lure the remains of the U.S. Pacific Fleet to its destruction.
05:25What they hadn't counted on was that the U.S. knew they were coming.
05:28I think the Americans won the Battle of Midway solely because of the code-breaking information that was given to the American fleet.
05:39They knew where the Japanese were coming from, they knew the day they were going to attack, and they knew their forces.
05:47So they were well informed on what was going to happen.
05:50In the basement of an old administration building at Pearl Harbor, the U.S. housed an unusual secret weapon.
05:58Known by its code name, HIPO, the Combat Intelligence Office was the Navy's primary code-breaking unit in the Pacific.
06:06HIPO focused chiefly on cracking the Japanese operational code, dubbed JN-25.
06:11JN-25 was the basic naval operational code of the Japanese Navy, which they used to describe ship movements, various plans, things of that kind.
06:25It was what is called a five-number code.
06:29The Japanese had a piece of paper with 50 spaces on it.
06:33Ten across, five down.
06:35And our job as Japanese language officers was to try to figure out what the numbers stood for.
06:40HIPO's most famous success has become almost legendary.
06:46Today, nearly 60 years after the Battle of Midway, Nauticos is trying to predict the location of the same Japanese fleet using a kind of code-breaking technology of its own.
06:57The art of locating ships lost at sea has evolved over the centuries into a high-tech endeavor.
07:04In the search for the Japanese fleet, the search plan itself took shape around a complex computer program known as ReNav.
07:13It is Nauticos' own proprietary software used to reconstruct or re-navigate the original track of a vessel.
07:21It has played a key role in Nauticos' prior discoveries.
07:24ReNav is really a combination of software, analytical techniques, knowledge of navigation principles that is integrated together to try to understand what happened in a battle or loss of a ship, a sinking, and come up with a good position.
07:44At ReNav's core is a sophisticated technique called Kalman filtering.
07:49Although the mathematics involved are complex, the idea behind it is simple.
07:54Average all the navigational data together in the smartest way.
07:58What results is the best estimation of a ship's original track, distilled from a complex informational brew.
08:05But before ReNav could be used to render an opinion about the location of the Japanese fleet, the team needed the most accurate data they could find.
08:12The Battle of Midway was a battle that was fought between fleets that were hundreds of miles apart. The aircraft carriers never saw each other. The aircraft themselves actually flew out to find the enemy carriers.
08:27So in the case of the Japanese fleet, to find out exactly where it was, we have to go back to the nearest information we have, which would be the deck logs from the submarine USS Nautilus, who actually fired torpedoes against the Japanese carriers.
08:40After learning of Japan's battle plan at Midway, the U.S. quickly mounted an ambush involving both surface ships and submarines.
08:48Admiral Chester Nimitz, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, ordered a fan-shaped submarine cordon northwest of the island, with the USS Nautilus in the very center.
09:00Fresh from training exercises in Hawaii, the sub was caught in the action when the battle broke out.
09:05We had not the slightest clue whether we were there. Nothing. We talked about it. We said, what are we doing here?
09:12And that went on for eight days. And every day, it was just a puzzle. Why are we here? We're not doing anything. All we do is stay submerged during the daylight hours, then surface at night and charge batteries.
09:28Then on the morning of the 3rd of June, I got a coded message addressed straight to the Nautilus that the Japanese are attacking Alaska and the Alaskan area, and it was a diversionary moment.
09:42He says, a real target is to take Midway Island. And he says, we can expect action any moment.
09:50Captain Brockman told the crew what was going on, that the Japanese fleet was going to try to take Midway, and we were out there to stop them.
10:00When we first run into the fleet, we went to battle stations. It was in the morning.
10:11And then later on, Captain Brockman raised the periscope to take a look around. The first thing I think he said was, Jesus Christ, we were right in the middle of the Japanese fleet.
10:20There was no doubt about it. Because the captain was spinning his periscope left and right, trying to encompass everything he could see.
10:31He must have been quite startled. I imagine it's real interesting.
10:37Over the course of seven hours, the Nautilus would endure and survive three Japanese attacks and 42 depth charges.
10:44In this case, it would be a Japanese sailor on each side setting the depth, and they roll them off.
10:51And these, they'll fall to the depth that it's set at, and it makes an audible click.
10:57And then a second later, that depth charge explodes. It's like a mountain exploding.
11:02I don't think there was a man on the Nautilus that day, including the captain, who didn't think we were going to survive.
11:09During the battle, the Nautilus fired three torpedoes at what was later determined to be
11:14the Japanese carrier Kaga, the focus of Nautico's search.
11:19The Nautilus was fortunate to have been staffed with experienced personnel throughout,
11:24a fact which probably contributed to her survival.
11:27Besides the highly respected Captain William Brockman,
11:31the Nautilus chief navigator was Lieutenant Commander Roy Benson, one of the Navy's best.
11:36After the attack on the carrier, as soon as it was dark, maybe an hour later, we surfaced.
11:42A celestial sighting was then taken to determine her position.
11:47Our celestial effects were right on. They were very good.
11:52And then when we submerged, our navigation was all dead reckoning.
11:59You knew your speed through the water, and every time you changed course, you'd record that.
12:05So you were just keeping track of where you were going from turns of the propeller and then changing the course.
12:12That's dead reckoning.
12:14In all the times during the war, I don't ever remember the navigation being in air. Not once.
12:21We realized that in order to do a proper re-nav, we have to work with records of a ship that didn't sink,
12:29because the ship sinks and takes the records with it.
12:32In this case, we found a ship that had sighted our primary target, the CAGA, shortly before it sank.
12:38And we had the records for this ship, the Nautilus.
12:40After the CAGA went down, the Nautilus returned to Midway to refuel, recording navigational data along the way.
12:48When she arrived at Midway, her crew emerged to a devastating scene.
12:52When we arrived at Midway Island that morning, I think we arrived there about 0700.
12:58We were the only ship in there. It was just awful.
13:02Here were the PT boats idling with their engines, quietly, and they were putting the dead that had been bombed the day before on the stern of the PT boats, and they were covered with bunting.
13:15Midway Island was level. Here were buildings that were black and burned, and people just wandering around in a state of shock.
13:29Now, more than 50 years after the war, very little about Midway Island has changed.
13:35It is still an exotic and remote pinpoint in the Pacific, yet once again a strategic location.
13:40It is from here that the team will begin its two-part search for the Japanese fleet.
13:49On the morning of May 7, 1999, the Nautikos and Navy team is anxious to get underway.
13:55After years of research and planning, the long-held dream of finding the Japanese fleet is finally within reach.
14:03Following last-minute checks of equipment and supplies, the team is underway, slicing through the Blue Pacific.
14:10In addition to being the most practical location from which to begin the search, Midway is also the starting point for the re-navigation.
14:18The team will follow in reverse the general track of the Nautilus as she returned to Midway after the battle.
14:25Using the Nautilus log data, Nautikos re-nav software has calculated their potential target area to be almost 170 miles northwest of Midway.
14:34This is the last known location of the Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga, which was fired upon by the Nautilus.
14:41The journey to the site will take approximately 12 hours aboard the USS Melville.
14:47Owned and operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Melville is the team's floating laboratory for this first of two trips.
14:54For the next eight days, the team will conduct a two-part sonar survey of the ocean floor.
15:02While en route to the site, they spend time acquainting themselves with new equipment and preparing for the task ahead.
15:08Both sonar instruments aboard the Melville are owned by the Naval Oceanographic Office, or NAV-O.
15:16The CMAP-C and the EG&G are complementary and serve different functions, but they produce images in exactly the same way.
15:23Sonar sound, it's a sound signal. When the CMAP instrument sends out a sound signal, or a sonar wave, it travels through the water column, down to the sea floor, and a proportion of the energy that was sent out comes back.
15:40That response is a measure of the hardness of the sea floor because the sound bounces off the sea floor.
15:50Now, if you have a heavily sedimented sea floor, like very much of the Pacific is, a lot of that signal is going to get absorbed by the sediments.
15:59However, if the sea floor is very hard, you're going to get a lot of the signal back.
16:03Now, something as hard as steel, the signal will be returned very, very, very strongly, and that will show up very differently in the pictures that we get back, that we make from the data that the instrument collects.
16:18The first sonar device to be used, the CMAP-C, is what's known as a bathymetric instrument.
16:23It sends a signal through the water column to the depths of the ocean floor, the sonar equivalent of aerial photography.
16:31It sees the big picture from high above.
16:34This is a shallow-toed instrument. It operates at 11 and 12 kilohertz frequency, which means that we get a very, very wide swath, up to 30 kilometer swath width,
16:45which is why we use it for the very first survey. We get a very broad idea of the general area that we're operating in.
16:50As the team approaches the search site, the CMAP instrument is readied for launch.
16:58It is lowered to a depth of 100 meters below the surface, which at this point is over three miles above the ocean floor.
17:06Phase one of the sonar search is finally underway.
17:11Although the aircraft carrier Kaga is the focus of the search, it was but one of four Japanese carriers lost at the Battle of Midway.
17:20Besides the Kaga, the Soryu, Hiryu, and Akagi all helped launch the initial attack on the atoll.
17:27Just before dawn on June 4, 1942, half of the available strike force took off from the carriers, en route to the U.S. base at Midway.
17:36At the same time, 200 miles to the east, three U.S. carriers were closing in on the unsuspecting Japanese fleet.
17:45The intelligence provided by the naval codebreakers was about to have its most significant impact on the war.
17:51While the Japanese were occupied with attacking Midway, the U.S. launched its strike force from the Hornet, Enterprise, and Yorktown.
17:59The mission was simple but daunting. Locate and destroy the Japanese fleet.
18:07Back aboard the Melville, the sonar mission is presenting its own challenges.
18:12Although the launch of the sea map was successful, a technical problem has developed.
18:16The instrument doesn't appear to be transmitting data.
18:26Although the sea floor was expected to be flat here, the sea map is showing no relief at all.
18:32The decision is made to reboot one of the computers.
18:36The ship must be turned around and the survey begun anew.
18:41Spencer King, Nautico's project associate, informs the bridge.
18:46You want to continue to the north and drive to point B1.
18:52Okay.
19:02Just about here we had a computer problem and the ship continued north and we've since cleared the problem.
19:13So we are turning around, we're coming back down and we're going to intersect our original search plan.
19:20So what we'll do is I'll generate some points and we'll come back around to the east.
19:25We'll come down here and then we'll regain the original A-B line and we'll run back that line again.
19:31Which is the most interesting area.
19:35We should be getting into the sea mounts.
19:39This unexpected delay could prove costly later, especially if time runs out before the best targets can be explored.
19:48I'm not getting a file yet.
19:54Okay, I see it.
19:55However, the preliminary survey is the only one to cover the entire search site.
20:00If the team misses something here, it could be lost forever.
20:08An hour later, all systems are working and the decision to turn around appears to have paid off.
20:14They've found a target.
20:15So what we're seeing here is this is a ping and this is a ping.
20:21Each one of these columns of little squares is a ping and each one of these little squares is a pixel.
20:29Now the interesting thing about this image here is that we see several pixels that are completely black and that's very unusual.
20:37That is what we call clipped. The system could not go any higher and that's a very good indicator that this is a man-made object.
20:47That what we're looking at is not manganese nodules or vulcanism, but is definitely a man-made object of steel or some other metal.
20:55The object's location is noted for later examination with the higher resolution EG&G sonar.
21:03Using a satellite tracking system, this exact spot can be found again easily.
21:09The ability to specify locations precisely is crucial.
21:14These targets can be miles apart with vast stretches of ocean floor in between.
21:18As a result, hours can pass without a promising image.
21:28On the other hand, when something significant is detected, the tiresome waiting is quickly forgotten.
21:34There's a lot going on here. I might have even found a debris field and there's probably more wreckage than just a ship sinking.
21:51Probably pieces, airplanes, different objects there that are going to be reflective to our system.
21:57After almost 30 hours, this is the best target yet. A debris field is often indicative of a catastrophic event.
22:07I think I've seen a little airplane in there too.
22:15At a thousand feet, you're only two seconds from impact.
22:19The only difference between us and the Japanese kamikaze was those last two seconds when we pulled out.
22:24Of all the aircraft that fought in the Battle of Midway, the SBD Dauntless dive bomber later became the most celebrated.
22:33Credited with downing the four carriers lost to Japan at Midway, the Dauntless was arguably the most effective dive bomber ever produced.
22:41It would emerge along with the Code Breakers as one of Admiral Nimitz's secret weapons of World War II.
22:47The dive bombers came in at high altitude. The Japanese had no long range radar, so they did not pick them up at long range.
22:56By the time they spotted the dive bombers, they were overhead.
23:00When they were overhead and rolling into their dives, there was only 30 seconds in the dive that the Japanese had to fire at them.
23:08There was little for the enemy to do but hope that the SBD's bombs fell wide.
23:14But the SBD's sharp angle of attack allowed the pilot to guide his bomb with deadly accuracy.
23:20The steeper an angle that a plane dived at, the greater the accuracy of hitting a target.
23:30We were trained to hit a target within 50 feet consistently.
23:35And the only way you could do that would be in a vertical dive.
23:38The key to the SBD's 70 degree dives, the steepest of any dive bomber, was a piece of technology possessed only by the US.
23:48Known as the split wing dive flap, it was an air brake with a unique characteristic.
23:54In a vertical dive, if you're at an extremely high speed, you have to pull out high.
23:59But with the dive flaps, you can go low. And in going low, you can pull out safely.
24:06This aggressive style of bombing had a fortunate defensive by-product.
24:12Japanese anti-aircraft fire was virtually incapable of touching the SBD.
24:17The dive bomber was practically invulnerable once they got into their dive.
24:22They were destined to hit their target, and that's why they were so effective at Midway.
24:27Once they got into their dive, there was no stopping them.
24:29In an ironic twist, the SBD's were so successful at Midway that the Navy became worried.
24:36The concern was that America's enemies would see the effectiveness of the SBD and successfully counter it.
24:43As a result, Admiral Nimitz undertook an elaborate disinformation campaign to keep the SBD's power a secret.
24:50Nimitz did not want the Japanese to know that dive bombing was so much more effective as a weapon than the torpedo bombers were.
25:00After the Battle of Midway, the New York Times came out with a full-page, front-page story about how the Army Air Force had sunk the Japanese fleet at Midway.
25:11Nimitz never refuted that. He never came out and said, hey, the Air Force didn't do that job at Midway. It was the dive bombers that did it.
25:21That information was not released to the public until after the war was just about over.
25:26The dive bomber was the Tomahawk missile of its day.
25:28We were programmed aboard ship. We were placed in our cockpit. We were launched from the ship at a distance from the target. We were guided to the target by our navigation and instructions.
25:44When we reached the target, we tipped over and we dove straight at the target. The only difference between us and the Tomahawk missile was the fact that we pulled out in the last two seconds,
25:54whereas the Tomahawk missile continued to impact the target.
26:01The team ends phase one of the sonar search on a cautiously optimistic note. They've succeeded in finding several promising contacts near the Kaga's re-navigated position.
26:13What's more, the objects appear to be metallic and man-made.
26:17At this point, we've completed the CMAP survey as we specified at the beginning of the operation.
26:24So in about 40 minutes, we'll make the turn to the north. We'll recover the CMAP.
26:28Then we'll reposition ship to launch the EG&G and get down and do a high definition search.
26:32As the CMAP is hauled aboard by one crew, another prepares the EG&G for launch.
26:51Unlike the CMAP, the EG&G is a deep towed system.
26:55Up to six miles of cable are needed to lower it to the ocean floor.
27:01Because of the tremendous forces involved, the EG&G requires a much more sophisticated towing apparatus.
27:09Deep within the ship, the miles of towing cable are stored on a massive drum.
27:15As the EG&G is lowered or raised, the cable is spooled off or on, much like a fishing reel.
27:21The cable is first threaded through a set of rollers that decouple the drum from the cable tension caused by towing.
27:30The cable is then routed up through the ship's deck to the winch system A-frame, from which the instrument is launched and retrieved.
27:38For both safety and practicality, there are two winch control systems.
27:44One set is on deck, the other is below deck with the instrument's monitoring equipment.
27:49It is here that the EG&G is usually controlled or flown during a sonar operation.
27:56In addition to the sonar capabilities of the EG&G, it also contains a still camera and flash system.
28:04Because of the intense water pressure three and a half miles below the surface, the camera has its own high-tech housing to protect it.
28:11The entire camera assembly is mounted on the bottom of the instrument just before launch.
28:18After last-minute checks of its sonar, cable and power systems, the EG&G is finally ready for launch.
28:27Several members of the team help to position the sled as others look on.
28:31As they near the edge, the unexpected occurs.
28:43The EG&G is launched straight up and into the pulley assembly.
28:48It is quickly determined that nobody is injured.
28:57However, the sled is dangling 15 feet above the deck and still poses a danger.
29:01The ship's captain arrives from the bridge and confers with the team.
29:13Until the situation can be resolved, the mission is suspended along with the EG&G.
29:18After determining that the problem was caused by a minor component failure in the winching mechanism controls, the sled is lowered to the deck and examined.
29:36To everyone's relief, nothing on the EG&G appears damaged.
29:41However, a related problem is soon discovered.
29:45The pulley assembly was damaged by the sled and can no longer guide it reliably.
29:52It's an unfortunate reminder that unforeseen events often dictate the terms at sea.
29:59With the nearest replacement part thousands of miles away, the crew must work into the night hoping to find a solution.
30:06The early morning is a time of transition aboard the Melville.
30:15For some, the day has begun with breakfast or conversation in the galley.
30:20For others, exercise before relieving the night shift.
30:24This morning, however, several crew members are ignoring their normal shift change.
30:28With the search mission on the line, they've worked through the night to repair the damaged pulley assembly.
30:35After several tests to determine the repair's integrity, the team is confident enough to attempt another launch of the EG&G.
30:42Once again, the sled is put in position and lowered into the water.
30:53The crew's perseverance appears to have paid off.
30:56The launch is completely uneventful, exactly what was needed.
30:59With the sled plunging to 17,000 feet, the team prepares for the next phase of the search.
31:08Hopes are high that the previous targets will prove to be wreckage from the Japanese fleet.
31:14Their setback now behind them, the team can once again focus on the search mission.
31:20Their goal now is to tow the EG&G into deep water and home in on targets found during the first survey.
31:26Because the EG&G is towed so much deeper than the sea map, navigation during this phase is significantly more complex.
31:36Now the EG&G system, the high resolution system we're towing right now, that's towed about 100 meters off the sea floor.
31:45There's miles of cable out, stretched out behind the ship right now to the instruments.
31:51So when we cross a particular patch of ground, it takes the instrument about two hours to get to where we are right now.
32:00This lag presents a challenge when flying the sled near the ocean floor.
32:05Underwater geology, including mountains and volcanoes, must be negotiated from miles away.
32:11Especially in this region of the Pacific, these features are massive and frequent.
32:15Our primary area of interest is here for the CAGA. There's a seamount right here.
32:21So that's significantly going to complicate trying to find these carriers.
32:28Any bathymetry with seamounts and canyons and such is difficult to search in.
32:34After three hours, the EG&G instrument has finally reached the ocean floor.
32:38Shortly, it will begin sending back images from one of the targets located during the sea map survey.
32:45On the basis of this survey, we chose three or four targets and we are now in the process of going back to these areas with the higher frequency system, the EG&G, that is towed near the sea floor that will give us more of a up-close picture of these same targets.
33:03After investigating the first target site for several hours, the team has moved on.
33:21But the data were promising enough that they plan to film the site during the optical phase of the search in four months.
33:27They're now at a point several miles away, towing the EG&G directly over their second target of interest from the sea map survey.
33:36On the sea map, this target was a fairly discrete area.
33:41On this target, it was much more dispersed.
33:45It seemed to have more expression.
33:48A sonar scan of the same target can sometimes look different when imaged with separate instruments.
33:54In this case, the image obtained from the EG&G looks less distinct than the original scan from the sea map.
34:02The team is having difficulty determining whether the target is wreckage or geology.
34:06What it appears to me is we have a large, almost like a little plateau that sticks up about 10 meters above the bottom.
34:15It's almost like an island top. It doesn't look like a plateau.
34:19Oh, I don't think it's geology. And I think that the variation in the gray shade in the sediments is caused by the wreck hitting the bottom.
34:28After some discussion, the team has assembled to decide how to proceed.
34:34Time will soon become a limiting factor, and they still have other targets to investigate.
34:40But they conclude that the target deserves one more pass.
34:44This time, they'll approach it from the opposite direction, imaging it from a different angle.
34:48On this second pass, they find what they're after.
35:03This was the second crossing, and at this time we are traversing east to west.
35:10Here's our ship track right here, and we traversed from east to west, and we got a very, very good signal.
35:17With a second target for the optical phase now found, they set a course for their next site and head out,
35:24this time in the direction of the re-nav area for the CAGA.
35:28Bridge lab. Hey, Anya, here's where we are in this. We've made the pass. We're hauling into five, three hundred meters.
35:34What I want to do is start making a turn back to the north now, a 180 degree turn.
35:42Changing course to zero nine zero.
35:50We'll winch up quite a bit as the mountains come up over on this side.
35:54We'll turn around, and then we'll set up for this leg right here.
35:57I think that's our best bet. We'll be able to nail down one, two, three contacts, plus run right through the center in the re-nav position.
36:02That does prevent us, I think, in the long run from providing 100% coverage of the re-nav area, but at this point I think it's worth it.
36:11While in transit to the re-nav site, the team analyzes the new target area and quickly plans their search strategy.
36:20The re-navigated position from the imagery we've collected so far falls almost directly between the two targets we've picked up.
36:27The target last night was off to the east side of it, whereas the target we originally picked up was CMAP, which appears to be the main portion of the wreck, is off to the west.
36:38The whole debris field is laying within a mile and a half of our estimated position. That's pretty accurate.
36:44After several hours, the EG&G is back down and the team is searching the target area.
36:51After nearly an hour of nervous searching, the tantalizing signs of a debris field begin to appear.
36:56This is looking very good here, too.
36:59Yeah, it is.
37:01I don't know what we've got to climb out of the woodwork.
37:04This looks...
37:06Hold on. What are we looking at?
37:09Is it this?
37:11This one?
37:12Yeah.
37:14Hard to tell right here.
37:15There's some very linear shapes in it.
37:20Like, you can see the square up there.
37:23There's some stuff down here.
37:24And then we're picking up...
37:26I'm watching this come across right now.
37:28We've got more stuff.
37:30It's interesting nature.
37:33These things, typically, you end up...
37:35As it falls through the water column, the lighter stuff comes off, and you end up with debris fields.
37:38Yeah.
37:39I've seen debris fields on CMAP, but they didn't look exactly like that, but not far.
37:47I mean, that could be a debris field.
37:50Yeah, that could be aircraft all over the place.
37:53Or just debris from the wreck.
37:58And finally, they see what is clearly a piece of wreckage.
38:03You know, this is the one I thought was geology.
38:05It's, you know, obviously not.
38:08You know, this perplexes me, though.
38:11The fact that there's such a large, sort of medium to high reflectivity circle around, you know, what appears to be a piece of wreckage.
38:22Very dark returns.
38:24It's indicating it's a very hard object, like a piece of steel.
38:27And yet, it's laying in a very soft bottom, like mud.
38:34It's mud, actually, down there.
38:37You can see how they stand out very.
38:39The contrast is incredible.
38:41It's the best thing we've got.
38:42That's right.
38:43So far.
38:44It's the best so far.
38:45I would not, can't prove it.
38:48We can't, just can't.
38:50As soon as we get clear of this area,
38:53let's go back in and measure, you know, start doing some post-processing on it.
38:58See what we can get out of it.
39:00One of my thoughts was that if this thing burned the way it did and came apart the way it did,
39:04it's the right size and about the right kind of shape, it's kind of out there all by itself, whatever this is.
39:12After almost one week aboard the Melville, the sonar phase of the search is over.
39:17Despite several threats to the mission's success, perseverance and a willingness to improvise have won the day.
39:24The team returns with some encouraging sonar data and the knowledge that significant pieces of wreckage exist within the ReNav site.
39:31As the EG&G is hauled aboard for the last time, the Melville sets a course back to Honolulu.
39:39For the next four months, the team will analyze the data they've collected and prepare for the optical phase of the search for the Japanese fleet.
39:50After four months of analysis and planning, the Nauticos and Navy team has returned to the Pacific, hoping to extend their previous success.
39:58They've spent the first three days of this four-day trip completing the survey of the ReNav site.
40:06With that task now finished, they are using the last day to take high-resolution photographs of the best sonar targets.
40:14But there's a setback. As the camera system approaches a target on the sea floor, its power supply malfunctions.
40:21The sled is brought up for immediate repair.
40:25We've got a 77% leak fault in the power bottle.
40:32So what that means is there's probably a drop of water in there hitting our leak sensors.
40:37That could be minor, but any water in there, if it hits the wrong component, it can short out the whole sled.
40:43With six hours left before they must return, Nauticos team leader Dave Jordan's frustration is clear.
40:51Time was also running out for the SBD dive bombers from the USS Enterprise.
40:57Already en route to the Japanese carriers, all 33 planes were ordered to proceed without waiting for fighter escort.
41:04The SBDs were no match for the nimble Zeros, and would be sitting ducks if spotted.
41:11But surprise was critical, and the calculated chance was taken.
41:16At the same time, Japan learned that its bombing raid on Midway Island had not gone as well as planned, and a second raid was ordered.
41:25As a result, many Japanese planes were taken below deck and re-armed.
41:29The fragmentation ordinance was substituted for the armor-piercing bombs used against ships.
41:37This delay would prove more costly than anyone could have imagined.
41:41When the SBDs arrived from the Enterprise and Yorktown, the Japanese carriers were floating powder caves.
41:49The flight decks and hangars were packed with fully fueled and armed Zeros and bombers awaiting launch.
41:54In their haste to get the planes off to Midway, ordnance and open fuel lines were carelessly strewn about.
42:01So when the bombs from the SBDs landed, the result was a fiery disaster.
42:06Massive explosions rocked the carriers, setting them ablaze and sending chunks of the flight deck and whole airplanes into the sea.
42:13In all of six minutes, Japan would lose three of its four carriers at the battle.
42:20The Kaga, the object of the team's search, was destroyed and would drift burning for nine hours.
42:27Finally repaired and back down, the optical system appears to be working flawlessly.
42:37As we got closer to the site, we saw the bottom, which had been very smooth, turn into manganese nodules or something like that.
42:43And then as we got a little closer, we started to see wreckage.
42:49We haven't identified any big pieces yet, but we've seen ammo boxes, ammunition, various debris, which is definitely suggestive of a warship.
43:00Some more.
43:02Some more.
43:04Now we're going to start seeing lots of stuff.
43:10There's an ammo box right over there.
43:19Then, suddenly, a shadow looms.
43:24What is it?
43:25We went back to battle stations again because they had sighted smoke on the horizon that he saw was a carrier.
43:37We fired torpedoes and, if I remember correctly, we got two hits.
43:42We had two massive explosions.
43:46The whole sea just reverberated.
43:48And we knew right away that the carrier had blown up.
43:51Although it has never been determined whether the Nautilus torpedoes detonated, one thing is certain.
43:57The Kaga soon plunged to the ocean floor.
44:01Shortly after that, we heard some crackling up and you could hear the carrier breaking up as it sank.
44:09Seems to me that Captain Brockman took a look about that time and there was no more carrier in sight.
44:16So it went down and the noise we heard was a carrier breaking up and popping up and crackling as it went to the bottom.
44:25All right.
44:36This is amazing.
44:37That could be one of these structures on the end that came off.
44:49This is a definite piece of wreckage where it's supposed to be.
44:56And there's a lot more of it to look at.
44:59Is that a rising sun on the side here?
45:02Holy cow, there's a porthole with glass in it.
45:10That's what they pulled up on Titanic last year.
45:15What do you think?
45:17You know what? You know what?
45:18Look at these big stanchions here.
45:20And that looks like that one stanchion that runs down the middle.
45:24And then it had the portholes.
45:25At the top, it might be upside down.
45:28What we need is a better drawing of the ship so we can have,
45:30see where there's larger portholes next to smaller ones.
45:35Buoyed by their discovery, they move on in search of the main wreckage.
45:42But the ship's busy schedule soon intervenes,
45:45bringing the mission to an end before anything further is found.
45:48Although the team is gratified by their discovery,
45:52their excitement is tempered by having to leave before the carrier's hull can be found.
45:57Ultimately, however, the mission's overall success is undeniable and reward enough.
46:03We've clearly found the target we're looking for.
46:06Unfortunately, that target is in pieces and we haven't found them all.
46:09There's more to find of that.
46:11There's work to do to identify which of the carriers we've found.
46:14In four days, we've accomplished a month's worth of work, I think.
46:23But again, this is one of the better ones, but you can see that it still is...
46:27With their search at an end, the team returns to Nautico's headquarters,
46:31having accomplished much of their initial goal.
46:34Over a four-month period, they successfully located the site of the Battle of Midway
46:39and have the photographic evidence to prove it.
46:41The final step is to determine, if possible, which of the Japanese carriers they've found.
46:47Nautico's team of forensic consultants are experts on the Japanese Navy.
46:52Upon studying the wreckage photos, they soon reach two conclusions.
46:57The main wreckage consists of two anti-aircraft gun tubs from a Japanese carrier,
47:02and the whole assembly is sitting upside down on the ocean floor.
47:05It's useful to think of yourself as being a person standing down on a lower deck,
47:11and actually looking up at the gun tubs that would be over your head,
47:15because what's happened is this particular artifact has been blown off the side of the ship
47:19and has landed upside down on the sea bottom.
47:21The other key feature that helped in the identification was the landing light array.
47:26The Japanese used light structures that helped pilots line up their approach to an aircraft carrier when they were making a landing.
47:35Once we saw that, we knew we had to find a carrier that had the landing light array attached directly to the gun tubs.
47:41Focusing on those specific features, they were ultimately able to rule out the Hiryu, Soryu, and Akagi.
47:50So that leaves us with Kaga.
47:52On the basis of this photo, we were then able to go out and identify the ship positively.
47:58This piece of wreckage, no doubt, is absolutely the Kaga.
48:02Yeah, that's right. That's correct.
48:05Photographic evidence of the Kaga marks the mission as a technological success.
48:09However, Nautico's search was never about the technology alone.
48:14It was about solving a mystery, about determining the location of a battle that changed history and the lives of those who fought it.
48:22When we were surveying in the region where the Japanese carriers were sunk,
48:27I used to stand on the fantail and look out at the water and wonder what it looked like on that day so many years ago.
48:35You got a feeling from the water and wondering what it looked like, the planes whizzing in, battleships on fire, and the abrupt end of all those young lives.
48:50Resting three and a half miles below the surface of the Pacific, wreckage of the Kaga offers mute testimony to the best and worst traits of the human race.
49:02Sent to the bottom by hostility, the remains of the Japanese fleet were discovered by means of a more noble and enduring human trait, ingenuity.
49:13Although more work lies ahead, the mission was an important validation of skill and technology.
49:19And its chief success was in offering a glimpse of what lies beyond, waiting to be discovered.
49:26To be discovered.
49:56You
Be the first to comment