Wreck of WWII ‘Ghost Ship of the Pacific’ discovered off California in ‘exceptional’ condition

The wreck of what was once known as the mysterious “the Ghost Ship of the Pacific” that fought on both sides of the Pacific theater in WWII has been discovered lying off the coast of California in “exceptional” condition.

The remains of the century-old Navy destroyer USS Stewart were found some 3,500 feet deep on the ocean floor in the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary – about 50 miles from San Francisco, researchers announced in a press release this week.

The Stewart was deliberately destroyed in a military exercise in 1946. Three autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) deployed by the marine robotics company Ocean Infinity finally located the wreckage after 78 years in August.

The AUVs found the storied vessel within a 37-square nautical mile area of the seafloor.

“We covered it very quickly, and in high resolution,” Andy Sherrell, Ocean Infinity’s director of maritime operations, told the New York Times.

The ship was laid down in Philadelphia in September 1919, just months before the end of WWI, and commissioned in 1920. 

The Stewart was stationed in Manila, Philippines with the rest of the outdated and poorly equipped ships in the US Navy’s Asiatic fleet when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941.

The ship was damaged by gunfire during combat by Japanese forces near Bali in Feb. 1942 and a “freak accident” left it stranded in a dry dock in Java. The crew decided to scuttle the ship as the Japanese prepared to invade the island. 

The imperial Japanese Navy raised the ship and renamed it Patrol Boat No. 102.

Soon, distant sightings of The Stewart led to rumors about an American “ghost ship” operating deep behind enemy lines. It earned the nickname “the Ghost Ship of the Pacific.”

The mystery was not solved until Americans found The Stewart battered but still floating in Kure, Japan at the end of the war. The ship was commissioned at a ceremony and towed back to San Francisco where it was given a violent “burial at sea,” according to researchers.

The Stewart was sunk by a barrage of aerial rockets and naval gun fire for two hours before slipping below the waves to be lost for nearly 80 years.

This year’s joint effort from Ocean Infinity, the archaeology company Search,the nonprofit Air/Sea Heritage Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Maritime Heritage program and the U.S. Navy led to its rediscovery.

The ship was found in incredible condition. The remains largely intact and its hull rests upright on the seat floor.

“The USS Stewart represents a unique opportunity to study a well-preserved example of early twentieth-century destroyer design,” maritime archaeologist James Delgado, a senior vice president at Search, said in the statement.

“Its story, from US Navy service to Japanese capture and back again, makes it a powerful symbol of the Pacific War’s complexity,” he said.

The high-resolution images from the sea floor will help NOAA monitor how marine life was impacted in the area and any ecological changes.

Data from the wreck of the Stewart will be turned over to the Naval History and Heritage Command to support future site management.