WWII relics found at bottom of the ocean amid USS Nevada battleship wreckage
Boot spotted among USS Nevada underwater wreckage
Researchers with NOAA discovered a boot amid other debris from the USS Nevada battleship off the coast of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii - NOAA researchers recently made an unlikely discovery while exploring the wreckage of the USS Nevada.
The Nevada survived the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, but years later after its decommissioning, it became target practice and was eventually sunk in the Pacific.
Decades later, a NOAA team exploring the wreckage site stumbled upon a boot leftover from the ship's prior missions. Other debris from the wreckage, such as mattresses and a sink, were also found on the ocean floor.
It is important to note that the boot is not human remains and the ship was empty when sunk. Some equipment had been removed from the ship upon its decommissioning, but most of the sailor's items such as bunk mattresses, sinks, paint cans, filing cabinets, and spare equipment like the boot remained on board, according to NOAA.
USS Nevada had a storied history in US Navy
Constructed in 1912 in Quincy, Massachusetts, and officially commissioned for warfare in 1916, the ship operated during World War I to protect convoys carrying material from the U.S. to Great Britain, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
The USS Nevada was the only ship to get underway during the Pearl Harbor attacks on Dec. 7, 1941.
At the start of the fight, the USS Nevada was struck by a torpedo and began to take on water. Despite suffering five bomb hits, the crew managed to get the ship underway at 8:40 a.m. Due to the significant damage, the crew beached the vessel in shallow waters so it could be salvaged later, according to the DOD.
"I always felt that the Quartermaster and that Chief Engineer had enough foresight and knew how to get things going when things got tough," USS Nevada survivor Geb Galle said in a 2016 interview with DOD News.
The battleship USS Nevada is in drydock at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, Hawaii, 1935. (U.S. Navy)
Galle worked in the engine room of the craft and said it was a wise decision to keep both boilers online instead of just one, so the ship could get underway in a half hour instead of two hours. As a result, two sailors from Nevada were awarded the Medal of Honor.
Of the USS Nevada's crew of around 1,500, 76 sailors and marines were killed or injured during the attack. Nine men are still unaccounted for.
The Nevada was salvaged and repaired to re-enter combat. The warship served in more battles, most notably participating in the June 6, 1944, D-Day landings in Normandy, France.
The battleship USS Nevada sinks after it is beached during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Dec. 7, 1941. (U.S. Navy)
Things would come full circle when the USS Nevada returned to the Pacific as it participated in the 1945 invasion of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
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By the war’s end, the Naval ship was too old for further duty. It was assigned as a target for atomic bomb testing at the Marshal Islands, according to Naval History and Heritage Command.
The tests left the ship damaged and radioactive, which led to the official decommissioning of the vessel. It was towed off to sea and sunk by gunfire and torpedoes before sinking to the ocean floor.