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bobdina
09-10-2009, 01:23 PM
Wrecked WWII patrol boat found off NC coast

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Sep 10, 2009 10:46:01 EDT

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Maritime archaeologists tracking the victims of Nazi U-boats during World War II have explored a Navy patrol boat that has been untouched since it sank off the Outer Banks in 1942.

The converted trawler YP-389 was found about 18 miles off Hatteras Inlet last month by an expedition led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration studying shipwrecks left from the World War II battle for control of East Coast shipping lanes, maritime archaeologist Joe Hoyt said.

Finding a World War II-era vessel is rare, researcher Richard Lawrence said. Of the 137 allied, German and merchant vessels lost off North Carolina during World War II, about 40 have been located, said Lawrence, head of the state Department of Cultural Resources’ North Carolina Archaeology Branch.

Footage of the wreck shows a ship’s skeleton with light fixtures, batteries, fire extinguishers, and port holes scattered around it, The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., reported Thursday. The metal sides of the hull had fallen to the side.

Lawrence said the expedition team compared video sent by an underwater robot sent down to find the vessel with old photos of the ship.

“By the end of the dive, we had no doubt what it was,” Lawrence said.

The patrol boat was originally detected in the 1970s by a team searching for the Civil War-era warship Monitor. The remains of as many as five men may be inside the 102-foot vessel resting under 325 feet of water, Monitor National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent David Alberg said.

The ship’s discovery was made last month during a three-week NOAA expedition, Alberg said.

YP-389 lost a 90-minute surface battle with the German U-701, which was sunk two weeks later by Army aircraft about 10 miles north.

In accounts told by survivors, Hoyt said, the YP-389 used .30-caliber machine guns and depth charges to attack the Germans, who returned fire with 20mm flak guns and 88mm deck guns.