In 2025, researchers explored the USS Yorktown wreck three miles below the Pacific; inside its hangar sat what may be a 1941 Ford station wagon

One of the most well-known of them is the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, which fought in the Coral Sea and Midway before going missing in the middle of the Pacific in June 1942. Her specific location of repose was unclear for decades afterward. In 1998, a US Navy and National Geographic expedition discovered the shipwreck about 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu, according to NOAA. In April 2025 a crew from NOAA Ocean Exploration came back with a more ambitious plan: to look inside the ship’s hangar for the first time.The cameras revealed several unexpected discoveries. Down on the aft hangar deck, more than three miles below the surface, lay a black Ford station wagon, about 1940 or 1941. No human divers approached it. The exploration was carried out by the remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer, and the car has since become the most talked about discovery from the dives.How the dives operatedThe dives occurred on April 19 and 20, 2025, as part of NOAA’s Papahānaumokuākea ROV and Mapping expedition aboard the research vessel Okeanos Explorer. Pilots from the Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration carefully guided Deep Discoverer through the No. 3 elevator shaft and into the hangar, avoiding entanglement hazards. The team emphasised that it did not disturb the wreck.Inside, the vehicle found a hand-painted mural, A Chart of the Cruises of the USS Yorktown, a world map about 42 feet wide, depicting the carrier’s journeys. It also located at least three Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers. One was upside down with a 500-pound bomb still in its cradle. Another was marked with the insignia of a plane from the U.S.S. Enterprise, which had landed at Yorktown after striking the Japanese carrier Kaga. NOAA says it’s the first time aircraft that fought at Midway have been located on the battlefield proper.The car mysteryThe first clue came on 19 April when, looking into the hangar from the port side, the team saw a faint shape of a car. The next day, experts could get a better look at its features, and NOAA Ocean Exploration says they provisionally identified it as a black 1941 Ford Super Deluxe Woody. The giveaways were a split windshield, a canvas top, a chrome bumper, rectangular rear windows and a spare tire on the back.Part of the front plate is visible. The top line says ship service. The bottom is tougher to see; it might have the ship's hull number or just mention US NAVY. NOAA researchers hypothesized that the automobile may have been used by senior officers or other crew members while the carrier was conducting business in foreign ports.The situation poses unpleasant questions. Yorktown spent only about 48 hours in repairs at Pearl Harbor before going for Midway, and her officers knew a battle was impending. If the sailors ejected guns and planes when they worked to right the ship's list, why was the automobile kept? The NOAA team wonders whether it had special meaning for the crew and officers hoping to preserve the ship. Nobody has an answer yet.Protecting a war graveOn the morning of June 7, 1942, as she was being towed back towards Pearl Harbor, two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine struck Yorktown, and she sank. Commissioned in 1937, she was about 809 feet long and could transport about 2,200 people and 90 aircraft. It is the final burial place of many servicemen, and in 2023 the US Navy declared it a Site of Extraordinary Character.The Naval History and Heritage Command lists USS Yorktown as a Site of Extraordinary Character and says full-scale permits for activities that would disturb such sites will be denied. That is why cameras, not salvage crews, are the tools of choice.In April 2025, more than three miles below the surface, a robot found a black wood-bodied Ford in the USS Yorktown’s hangar. It’s presumably a 1940 or 1941 Super Deluxe; it looks to have been the Navy’s, and we’re still puzzled as to why it survived on board during the Battle of Midway.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.