Washington: The US Navy has confirmed the traced out wreckage at the bottom of the Java Sea as that of USS Houston.
This cruiser was made sink by the Japanese during the World War Two.
One of the US navy sources said that the wreck is the final resting place of as many as 700 US sailors and marines.
US and Indonesian divers have discovered that pieces of the hull and un-exploded ordnance store in the cruiser had been removed.
The site is a popular underwater dive spot, and officials are coordinating its conservation.
The Houston, nicknamed as “the Galloping Ghost of the Java Coast”, was sunk during the Battle of Sunda Strait on 28 February 1942.
Its commanding officer, Capt Albert Rooks, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, for extraordinary heroism displayed during the battle.
That was the highest military decoration offered by the US during that period.
All 1,068 sailors and marines on board were presumed dead after the sinking of the ship.
But when the war ended in 1945, 291 sailors and marines who survived the sinking and caught as prisoners in war camps were released to the US.
US officials had laid a wreath at the site in June this year to commemorate the loss of the ship, but it was only on Monday that the Navy’s History and Heritage Command confirmed the wreckage as that of the sunken warship.
Video on laying wreath on behalf of USS Huston
