A US aircraft carrier from World War II, which sunk to the bottom of the Pacific over 80 years ago, is now at the center of an automotive mystery.
An expedition to the famous shipwreck 1,000 miles northwest of Hawaii uncovered a mysterious car stored inside the vessel on April 19.
The USS Yorktown was lost during the Battle of Midway in 1942 after several Japanese torpedoes struck the ship.
Although the crew tried to save the ship from sinking by launching all her aircraft and dumping her heavy guns, it appears a strange decision was made to leave this one car behind.
Ultimately, Yorktown could not be salvaged and the giant Navy carrier sank on June 7, 1942 – with the car still inside.
Now, a team from NOAA Ocean Exploration has unearthed the previously undocumented car hidden on board and is trying to figure out how it got there and who it belonged to.
During a livestream of the underwater expedition, one researcher said: ‘Here’s an open request to all your automobile vehicle folks out there. I’m sure you are being attentive to this and you understand what you are looking at. Please post on this. It really helps.’
The plea for the public’s help has sparked the curiosity of car fans online, who may have already solved the mystery of the Yorktown’s secret automobile.
NOAA researchers discovered a decaying car inside the wreck of the USS Yorktown, lost during the Battle of Midway in World War II
Cars would be been a strange sight on board a Navy ship during World War II because of the limited space on board the Yorktown
NOAA Ocean Exploration and a Reddit thread about the car both came to the same conclusion: it’s likely a 1940-41 Ford Super Deluxe ‘Woody’ Wagon.
Images taken of the wreck seem to line up perfectly with the Woody’s back window and spare tire.
However, researchers said that this just opens up an even bigger mystery, as these kinds of cars typically weren’t carried on a US Navy ship fighting in a war.
The NOAA team explained that the Ford Super Deluxe model was a common vehicle used by both Army and Navy officers on shore, but they were rarely or never carried at sea.
Even a large carrier like the Yorktown had limited space after loading over 70 fighter planes and a crew of 2,200, making it impractical to squeeze a 16-foot car into the hangar.
Moreover, there are no documented cases of personal vehicles being kept on US aircraft carriers during World War II, even by high-ranking officers.
‘It has a license plate on the front that can be partially read saying ‘SHIP SERVICE’ at the top, but the lower part is illegible due to corrosion,’ NOAA reported.
So, despite being an unusual item to carry on a Navy ship, the plates NOAA found seem to confirm that the Woody was an official vehicle used by somebody on the Yorktown.
Two men on board the carrier may have realistically been able to claim ownership of the Woody – and had the authority to keep their prized possession from being dumped in the Pacific.
NOAA and car enthusiasts agreed the car appears to be a Ford Super Deluxe Wagon from 1940 or 1941 – also known as a ‘Woody’
The USS Yorktown served in the US Navy during the early years of World War II, ultimately sinking during the Battle of Midway in 1942
Yorktown’s crew launched all its aircraft and threw all heavy equipment overboard in an attempt to save the ship from sinking, except for the mysterious car
Yorktown sits 3 miles below the ocean surface about 1,000 miles from Hawaii. The wreck was visited by NOAA Ocean Exploration in April 19
The first and most likely candidate is Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher, the commander of Task Force 17, a carrier group in the Pacific.
The Yorktown was part of this fleet of ships which defeated the Japanese navy at Midway, and Fletcher used the carrier as his flagship during the battle.
While an important military commander could have requested to have his own car available when the ship docked in ports, Navy historians note that many of Fletcher’s official documents were lost in combat and there is no record that this car was his.
‘Admiral’s can do whatever they want, if the admiral wanted to drag his car around no one is going to say c–p to him,’ one Reddit user exclaimed.
Another possible owner of the car might have been the Yorktown’s commanding officer, Captain Elliott Buckmaster.
While Admiral Fletcher used the carrier as his base to coordinate all the other vessels in Task Force 17, Buckmaster was in charge of the Yorktown’s day to day operations – giving him say over everything happening on board the ship.
However, a captain’s personal space on board a ship during World War II was still very modest, so the idea of bringing a large station wagon on board would have been strange in the 1940s.
Unfortunately for the still-unknown owner of the Woody, the car never made it back from the Battle of Midway.
The Yorktown was struck by two Japanese torpedoes on June 4, 1942, causing the mighty carrier to lose power and start drifting in the ocean.
The vessel was struck again by two more torpedoes on June 6, which ultimately proved to be fatal blows.
Despite efforts to tow Yorktown back to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the ship would sink to its final resting place, three miles deep in the Pacific, a day later.
