The long-forgotten wreckage of a ship that participated in World War II has been discovered in California’s drought-stricken Shasta Lake due to low water levels.
According to the U.S. Forest Service, the amphibious Higgins landing craft, sometimes known as the “ghost boat,” first emerged in the parched reservoir last October.
It was employed aboard the USS Monrovia, the battleship that functioned as General George Patton’s command center during the invasion of Sicily, according to markings on the boat’s side. On the ship at one time was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who organized and led the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.
The ship afterwards participated in a number of operations, including the assault of Tarawa, when more than 1,200 Marines lost their lives in only 76 hours.
In the Pacific Ocean, the USS Monrovia finally sunk in confined seas near an island.
Despite being retrieved, the “ghost boat” somehow made it to the bottom of California’s biggest reservoir.
The Forest Service said that there was still “much to learn about its history and obviously its time on Shasta Lake, and yet the circumstances of its sinking remain a mystery.”
The boat will be repaired and ultimately put on exhibit in a Nebraska museum.
Between 1942 and 1945, Higgins Industries in New Orleans produced a large number of landing craft. At Normandy, around 1,500 “Higgins boats” were stationed.
Scientists describe the current drought in California as being the worst in 1,200 years. Another World War II-era sunken boat surfaced in July from a reservoir that spans Nevada and Arizona.