The Search for USS Mississinewa - 5     

Mississinewa found - at last

After 6 frustrating days of intense sun and rough seas, we had covered most of the five square mile grid. On the seventh day, made available by the generosity of Pacific Missionary Airline's owner Peter Reichert (who changed their flight schedule to grant us more search time), computer analysis of our GPS grid patterns revealed two unexplored holes in "the cone". We chose one final search area, which was most consistent with Sid's photos. At 12:10 PM, with only two boat passes left before we would have had to quit, the depth finder screen suddenly signaled an anomaly below - an abrupt vertical 40+ foot rise and fall, which repeated with a second pass. Our boat was definitely over the ship. Ken jumped into the water and made the first visual confirmation from the surface. It became real as Pam, Pat, Faustino and I descended on it. Resting upside down in 120 feet of water, oriented with the twisted bow pointed due east and home to thousands of fish, was the USS Mississinewa. Almost 57 years after she and the 63 souls who accompanied her slipped to the bottom, the "Miss" was found.

Given the short period of time we had remaining (to leave time for our nitrogen offgassing before the flight home), we were able to make only two dives on the ship. Before our first dive, the team on the boat stopped all activity and we held a quiet service for the dead who lay below us. We had agreed to investigate and photograph the wreck but, out of respect for this gravesite and the crew within it, not to penetrate into the ship's interior.

The first dive was an adrenalin-laden adventure because we tried to take in as much as we could of this 553 foot ship. The impact crater made by the submarine was enormous and resulted in the bow resting on its port side while the hull, aft of the explosion, flipped all the way over. On the bow section, the starboard 3-inch gun remained intact, now coral laden. Toward the port side, hatches to crew quarters and work areas remained permanently open. Moving to the west toward the stern along the bottom of the hull (which was now on top and surprisingly free of marine growth due to the still-active anti-fouling paint), we found the two huge screws and midline rudder intact. I took as many photos as I could.