First Look At USS Independence Shipwreck Photos Taken By Nautilus

The puzzle of the history of World War II is still being discovered with a new underwater study conducted by scientists on Tuesday morning showing a photograph of the USS Independence aircraft carrier.

The team made an expedition to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, just 30 miles off the coast of Northern California where the aircraft carrier rests peacefully. They searched for the623-foot-long shipwreck sitting peacefully on Half Moon Bay. The expedition was made available on live broadcast as they travel 2,600 feet under the water. The telecast was open for viewers at nautiluslive.org and ended on Tuesday afternoon, as per the report in Mercury News.

During the telecast, stunning details were seen like the ship's huge anti-aircraft guns, name on the hull, its flight deck, and the last pieces of the Hellcat fighter plane. According to James Delgado, the director of maritime heritage for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "It's damaged, but the star, the insignia, is still there on the wing and the 50-caliber guns are still in place."

The ship was completely covered with huge white sponges with many orange thornyhead fishes swimming around. They also saw large fishing nets on the bow and stern. "Independence is in much better condition than I expected. It looks as it did in the 1946 photographs. It is a frozen moment in time," he added.

The Independence was an active participant in the war at Wake Island, Okinawa and Leyte Gulf. In 1946, the Navy returned the vessel to the Bay Area before finally sinking it off the coast. It was the lead of its class in carrying light-weight aircraft during the World War II, says Live Science.

The USS Independence remained one of the less known vessels during the World War II and its shipwreck was found four decades later by the U.S. Geological Survey as they were mapping the seafloor. It remained at the bottom of the Bikini Atoll and remained a tourist attraction for divers.

The team scanned the ship and confirmed it is safe for humans to get near since it shows negative of any radioactive materials since much of its radioactivity was lost during its early days. They're very pleased that the ship is submerged below the ocean because water acted as an effective buffer to shield it from any radioactive material. "Any radioactivity will not penetrate water more than an inch or two inches," Delgado added. He is also among the researchers who unlocked the secrets of The Titanic and plans to pursue a career of exploration and share the wonders of the world as he discovers it.