Scuttled "Monster" Japanese WWII Submarine/Aircraft Carrier found off of Hawaii

[gfisher4792]

Courtesy o' fark.com: Big ol' sub!

 

[justleesa]

COOL! Practically in our back yard ...did I miss it? Do they say at what depth it was found?

 

[Vie]

Amazing. I remember reading (in an old issue of Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine) about the fold-up bombers, called Seiran, that were carried inside the I-401 within a watertight hangar; three could be carried plus parts to construct a fourth. I think the National Air and Space Museum has a Seiran in its collection.

 

[justleesa]

Wait, I found it in the Honolulu Advertiser:

Japanese sub's wreckage found

University of Hawai'i scientists have discovered the wreckage of a large World War II-era Japanese submarine in waters off O'ahu.

A Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory submersible found the Japanese I-401 during test dives Thursday.

John Wiltshire, acting director of the laboratory, said the submersible Pisces discovered the sub 820 meters below the surface off Kalaeloa.

The vessel is from the I-400 Sensuikan Toku class of subs, the largest built before the nuclear ballistic missile submarines of the 1960s. They were 400 feet long and nearly 40 feet high and carried a crew of 144.

They were designed to carry three fold-up bombers, which could be made ready to fly in a few minutes and had wing floats for return landings. Fully loaded with fuel, the submarines could sail 37,000 miles. An I-400 and I-401 were captured at sea a week after the Japanese surrendered in 1945. Their mission was never completed.

The discovery is the laboratory's second Japanese vessel found off O'ahu.

In 2002, the crew found the wreckage of a Japanese midget sub that was sunk on Dec. 7, 1941, off Pearl Harbor.

 

[Vie]

Do they say at what depth it was found?

“It’s about 820 meters down, off the coast of Barbers Point,” said HURL Acting Director John Wiltshire.

 

[justleesa]

:bawling: means I can't dive it!!! :bawling:

 

[Zed]

:bawling: means I can't dive it!!! :bawling:

You can dive it as long as you dont have too many plans for after the dive. :death2:

 

[mike_s]

Amazing. I remember reading (in an old issue of Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine) about the fold-up bombers, called Seiran, that were carried inside the I-401 within a watertight hangar; three could be carried plus parts to construct a fourth. I think the National Air and Space Museum has a Seiran in its collection.

I think they do. (or someone does).

There was an interesting show on the Toku class (I-400's) of subs on the History Channel a few weeks ago. After WWII was over, the US ordered all of Japans subs to be sunk. So they took them offshore and sunk them by using them for target practice by the Allied fleet. The show centered on history of the sub and finding them on the bottom. There were able to find one with a mini ROV operated from a ship, but did not dive from it. I can't remember the depth, but I think it was two or three hundred feet deep.

Not on the show, but I also read somewhere that "supposedly" the Japanese sunk another of these subs in the Caribbean somewhere at the end of the war. It was on it's way to bomb the Panama canal when the war ended. (they sunk it in order to keep it from being captured). Ironically, they sent a sub on this mission beforehand and called it back. If that one had made it through, it would have really disrupted shipping of supplies during the war.

Something else interesting I read about the Toku class subs and the Seiran bombers was that one of the plans was to use the planes to drop rats and fleas infested with bubonic plague on US cities. I can't remember where I saw this. Maybe it was on the same show. They never did this though. I imagine that a sub full of plague invested critters wouldn't fare well on the crew.

 

[justleesa]

:rofl:

You can dive it as long as you dont have too many plans for after the dive. :death2:

 

[Tom Winters]

:bawling: means I can't dive it!!! :bawling:

You can dive it as long as you dont have too many plans for after the dive. :death2:

Hey, remember to take lots of pictures too!