REMARKABLE images have revealed the resting place of the last American warship to be sunk in World War Two by a German submarine.
Patrol boat USS Eagle PE-56 was located a few miles off the Maine coast last year has been located, ending a decades long mystery.
The private dive team later dived down and spotted the ship’s bow under about 260 feet and then its stern and then the vessel itself where scores of sailors are entombed.
The sinking of the USS Eagle PE-56 on April 23, 1945, was originally blamed on a boiler explosion.
But the US Navy concluded in 2001 it had been sunk by a German submarine, the U-853, seven days before Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler killed himself in his bunker in Berlin.
Only 13 of the Eagle’s 62 crew members survived after they were plucked from the water by a nearby Navy destroyer.
The U-853 itself was sunk off Rhodes Island, New England, on May 6, 1945, the day before Germany surrendered killing the sub commander.
It was the last U-boat to be sunk in World War Two.
There are lockers that are partially opened, the chart table is still there, there were men sitting around that when the torpedo exploded
Diver Ryan King
Diver Ryan King and his dive team worked with the Smithsonian Channel, extensively explored the ship on the ocean floor, five miles off Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
Mr King told Fox News:“When the torpedo exploded, she snapped in half – only one man got out of the bow section, 12 men made it out of the stern section.”
The exploration of the wreck will be featured in the three-part series “The Hunt for Eagle-56,” on the Smithsonian Channel.
During his dives, Mr King said he could clearly see the Eagle’s deck machinery and its massive 16-foot deck gun on top of the forward crew quarters.
He said: “It really is a humbling experience when you’re down there, you’re not just on a shipwreck, you’re on a gravesite.
“We haven’t touched things, we have made a point of staying out of areas where there is evidence of human remains.”
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The Eagle’s helm and its telegraph are clearly visible.
Mr King said: “You’re seeing all of this equipment that is part of the wreck.
“There are lockers that are partially opened, the chart table is still there, there were men sitting around that when the torpedo exploded.
“You realise that many of the men that used that equipment are still entombed in the wreck.”
The dive team also saw crew members’ boots strewn about.
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