Unveiling the Abyss: The Deepest Shipwreck Discovered Secrets Lurking Thousands of Meters Below Sea Level

Back in October 1944, the USS *Samuel B. Roberts* found itself in a pickle during the Battle off Samar—one of the fiercest clashes in the sprawling Battle of Leyte Gulf. Picture this: a modest destroyer escort armed with only a fraction of the firepower its bigger cousins packed, standing almost hopelessly against an overwhelming Japanese naval force hell-bent on repelling the U.S. invasion of the Philippines. After sending every bullet, smoke shell, and flare it had skyward as a desperate smokescreen, the *Sammy B* was hammered into the depths of the Philippine Trench, taking around 90 brave sailors with it. Fast forward nearly 80 years, and adventurer Victor Vescovo’s deep-sea submersible, the *Limiting Factor*, finally found the wreck—offering a haunting, broken-in-two time capsule that confirmed what eyewitnesses once told us, etched forever in steel torn apart by battle. So, the big question is: when faced with near-certain doom, what drives such extraordinary heroism? If there’s an answer lurking in the deep, this story just might have it. LEARN MORE

In October 1944, during the Battle off Samar—one of four major actions during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in World War II’s Pacific theatre—the USS Samuel B. Roberts found itself in dire straits. 

The destroyer escort had only a fraction of the guns and torpedoes carried by the naval warships it accompanied. It stood no chance against the Imperial Japanese naval force, which was desperate to fight off a U.S. invasion of the Philippines at Leyte Gulf. After firing every round of ammunition, smoke shell, and illumination round on board to provide a protective smoke screen for the destroyers, the Sammy B was sunk by a Japanese battleship and disappeared into the depths of the Philippine Trench, dragging around 90 of its 224 crew members with it.