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 The 400-foot (122-meter) "Sen-Toku" class vessel — among the largest
pre-nuclear submarines ever built — was found in August off the
southwest coast of Oahu and had been missing since 1946, scientists
at the University of Hawaii at Manoa said.
The I-400 and its sister ship, the I-401, which was found off Oahu
in 2005, were able to travel one and a half times around the world
without refueling and could hold up to three folding-wing bombers
that could be launched minutes after resurfacing, the scientists
said.
The accidental discovery of the 1-400, an aircraft-toting I-400 mega
sub, on the rock- and debris-littered ocean floor, some 2,300 feet
beneath the surface, has solved the mystery surrounding a ship long
thought to be further afield.
"We came upon this as we were looking for other targets ... It is
like watching a shark at rest," said Jim Delgado, a researcher
aboard the Pisces V deep-diving submersible which traveled to the
wreckage.
The U.S. Navy captured five Japanese subs, including the I-400, at
the end of World War Two and brought them to Pearl Harbor for
inspection, the scientists said on Monday.
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"It was torpedoed, partially collapsed and had sunk at a steep
angle," said Delgado, an archaeologist with the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which helped to fund the dive.
U.S. forces sank the submarines and claimed to have no information
on their precise location, in an apparent bid to prevent their
technology falling into the hands of the Soviet Union, which had
demanded the ships be returned to Japan.
Other mega subs have been found in waters off Oahu and in the Sea of
Japan. One in the submarine class remains missing.
The discovery of the I-400 was announced on Monday after NOAA had
reviewed its findings with the U.S. State Department and Japanese
government officials, researchers said.
[By Suzanne Roig]
(Editing by Eric M. Johnson and Gareth Jones)
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