A World War II era U.S. aircraft carrier that sank in the Pacific over 80 years ago is now at the heart of an automotive mystery, the Daily Mail reported. During a recent expedition to the iconic wreck site—located about 1,000 miles northwest of Hawaii—a NOAA Ocean Exploration team discovered a car hidden inside the sunken vessel on April 19. The USS Yorktown went down during the Battle of Midway in 1942 after sustaining multiple torpedo hits from Japanese forces. In the end, the massive Navy carrier couldn’t be saved and sank on June 7, 1942, with the vehicle still onboard. During a live broadcast of the underwater mission, a researcher called on the public for help: “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 call has ignited interest among car buffs on the internet, and many believe they’ve already identified the mysterious vehicle as a 1940–41 Ford Super Deluxe ‘Woody’ Wagon. While the mystery of the type of vehicle on the ship may be solved, it is still not known why this type of car—which wasn’t typically transported on combat-deployed U.S. Navy ships—was aboard the USS Yorktown.
Read it at The Daily Mail
