REMNANTS OF THE PAST

Part of Doomed WWII U.S. Destroyer Abner Read Found Off Alaska Coast

The USS Abner Read lost its stern and more than 70 crew members in the only WWII battle to take place on U.S. soil.

Maritime scientists have discovered part of a U.S. warship that was destroyed in the only World War II battle in America off the coast of Alaska. The USS Abner Read struck a mine set by Japanese forces near the island of Kiska in 1943, tearing off a large section of the stern and the ship’s five-inch gun. Seventy-one crew members were killed in the shipwreck. Scientists announced Wednesday that they had found the sunken 75-foot section of the stern and gun in 290 feet of water last month, though no bodies were found at the site. The discovery was made as part of an expedition funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and run by Project Recover, a partnership involving the University of Delaware, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, and the BentProp Project. Andrew Pietruszka of the Scripps Institution said finding the ship’s sunken stern was like “scoring a touchdown” for the archaeologists involved until they realized the site was also the final resting place for those killed, according to The Washington Post. “It’s a very humbling experience,” he was quoted as saying. “To be part of, even without the recovery of these remains, families can find some solace that somebody found where their loved one is, that you can put that to rest.”