Divers Finally Found The Eerie Wreck Of A Cold War-Era Submarine

11,000 feet beneath the ocean's surface, Tim Taylor and his team of underwater experts are searching for treasure – but not the kind of treasure you'd expect. They're using sophisticated equipment to locate a sunken World War II-era submarine called the USS Stickleback. The American sub is at the center of a mysterious disappearance at the height of the war. And if Taylor and his team are able to find it, they'll be the first people to lay eyes on the vessel since 1958.

60 years gone

That means that the sub was missing for six entire decades. Taylor and his team found the lost sub using cutting-edge technology including remotely operated vehicles, high-tech sonar, and imaging equipment. The Stickleback had actually split into two parts. And as Taylor has pointed out, the submarine’s crewmen were incredibly lucky to have survived. Usually, when a sub sinks, the crew is trapped aboard.

USS Stickleback

That fact alone is enough to understand why Taylor had been so obsessed with tracking the sub down. But it’s not the only reason why the USS Stickleback is special. Its Navy designation was SS-415, one of the 120 Balao-class vessels built during WWII. Yet only the Stickleback would go on to play such a storied part in history.

Balao craftsmanship

Given the craftsmanship that went into the Balao subs, it’s perhaps not surprising that they were classics of warfare. The first of this class – the USS Balao – was launched in October 1942. It massively improved on the previous Gato class of submarines. And yes, all the Balaos were named after species of fish. But that didn’t stop the Stickleback from having a massive impact.

Deep divers

What made the Stickleback so effective? The Balao subs had thick high-tensile steel alloy hulls so they could dive to depths of 400 feet. And actually, the submarines’ hulls wouldn’t fail until they reached 900 feet. That’s a pretty important number when you understand how the Stickleback ended up in its watery grave.