The U.S. Navy’s “dancing mouse” has been located after more than eight decades. The USS Edsall, which was sunk early in World War II while facing down overwhelming odds, was confirmed to be found this past week.
The U.S. and Royal Australian Navy jointly announced the find last week. The ship, a Clemson-class destroyer sunk on March 1, 1942 after being attacked by Japanese forces, was located roughly 200 miles off of Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean
In fact, it was found by accident. A separate survey located a shipwreck near Christmas Island last year, but it wasn’t clear what it was at the time. The Royal Australian Navy was carrying out an undisclosed mission when it found the wreck. The wreckage was eventually confirmed to be the Edsall. Australia and the United States only officially announced the find on the Nov. 11 holiday, Remembrance Day and Veterans Day, respectively for the two countries.
“The wreck of this ship is a hallowed site, serving as a marker for the 185 U.S. Navy personnel and 31 U.S. Army Air Force pilots aboard at the time, almost all of whom were lost when Edsall succumbed to her battle damage,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti said in a statement. “This find gives us the opportunity for today’s generation of sailors and Navy civilians to be inspired by their valor and sacrifice.”
The American and Australian navies used robots and underwater drones to locate the wreck, and then examine the ship and determine what it was.
The ship was commissioned in 1920, named for Seaman Norman Edsall, a sailor killed during the Spanish-American War. The destroyer initially served in the Mediterranean, protecting American ships and evacuated refugees at various points, before serving in the Pacific and around China. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the ship was en route to Jakarta. It quickly regrouped with other American ships in the Pacific, operating for weeks off of the coast of Australia protecting ships. Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, Australia’s Chief of Navy, noted the shop’s role in the Battle of the Coral Sea and its involvement in the sinking of the Japanese submarine I-124. That victory, on Jan. 20, 1942, was the first time an American destroyer would be involved in defeating an enemy submarine in the war.
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The USS Edsall’s luck ran out weeks later. On March 1, 1942, the ship was sailing by itself roughly 225 miles off of the coast of Christmas Island, on a route towards an Allied oil ship that had been sunk. A Japanese plane spotted it and soon multiple ships — two cruisers and two battleships — were opening fire on the destroyer. The Japanese forces were led by Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, who previously commanded the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Edsall’s captain, Joshua Nix, ordered it to fight back.
Despite the odds, the ship didn’t go down easily. The Edsall weaved through the water, conducting quick maneuvers to avoid enemy fire. It avoided more than 1,300 enemy shells fired at it. Outnumbered and outgunned, the ship’s crew deployed smoke for cover. A Japanese observer compared the ship to a “dancing mouse” in praise of its evasiveness. The strategy worked for a time, with the Navy ship firing at the Japanese vessels while avoiding direct hits. However, it wouldn’t last. Japanese planes dropped bombs around the destroyer, with one getting a direct hit that left it disabled and unable to keep up the maneuvers.
Left damaged, the USS Edsall was easily taken out by the Japanese ships’ big guns. More than an hour after being spotted and after a pitched battle, the ship sank. A photo taken by Japanese forces shows the ship locked in combat, even as it started to slip beneath the waves.
Naval History & Heritage Command, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Most of the crew was killed in the battle, some left to drown in the sea. Others were taken prisoner by the Japanese military. After the end of World War II, a mass grave was found with decapitated American remains, including multiple crewmembers of the USS Edsall. 186 Americans were declared dead from the sinking of the ship. The U.S. Navy later commissioned the Edsall-class destroyer escort ships, with the lead ship entering service in 1943.
The Edsall is the latest ship from World War II to be found after decades lost to the seas. Several American warships and submarines have been located in recent years, often lost during pitched battles later in the war when the United States was pushing the Japanese military off of many of its Pacific holdings. Many were found in the waters around the Philippines, including the USS Samuel B. Roberts, sunk in the Battle off Samar in 1944.