The radar screen aboard USS Samuel B. Roberts lit up at 06:45 on October 25th, 1944. Lieutenant Commander Robert Copeland stepped onto the bridge off Samar Island and counted the silhouettes emerging through the dawn haze. Enemy warships, more than he could engage, more than he could survive.
Six months in command, 224 men under his authority, zero combat engagements against surface ships. The Japanese Center Force had 23 warships closing on his position. Battleship Yamato, 72,000 tons, 18-in guns that could fire a shell weighing 3,200 lb to a range of 26 mi. Three more battleships behind her, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, 11 destroyers. Samuel B.
Roberts displaced 1,745 tons fully loaded. Her main battery consisted of two 5-in guns. Her design top speed was 24 knots. She was a destroyer escort built to hunt submarines in the Atlantic, not fight battleships in the Pacific. The math was simple. Yamato outweighed Roberts by a ratio of 41 to 1.
A single salvo from Yamato’s main battery weighed more than Roberts’ entire ammunition load. The Japanese fleet could stand off at 15 mi and dismantle every American ship on station without taking a single hit in return. Copeland’s ship was part of Task Unit 77.4.3, call sign Taffy 3. Six escort carriers, three destroyers, four destroyer escorts.
Their mission was to provide air support for the Leyte Gulf landings, not to engage the Imperial Japanese Navy’s most powerful surface action group. Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet had been lured north chasing empty Japanese carriers. The San Bernardino Strait was supposed to be blocked. It wasn’t. Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita had brought his entire Center Force through the strait during the night.
Now his battleships were 8 miles away and closing. The escort carriers were defenseless. Thin flight decks over converted merchant hulls. No armor. Maximum speed 18 knots. If Kurita reached them, the slaughter would take minutes. Roberts had been in commission for 5 months and 27 days. Most of her crew had never fired their guns in anger.
The chief engineer had never pushed the engines past test speeds. The torpedo crews had never launched their Mark 15 torpedoes at a moving target. By late October 1944, the statistics for destroyer escorts engaging heavy cruisers were clear. They didn’t survive. In 2 years of Pacific combat, no destroyer escort had successfully defeated a Japanese heavy cruiser in surface action.
The armor differential was too great. The gun caliber mismatch was absolute. Roberts’ 5-in guns could penetrate cruiser armor at close range under perfect conditions. Against battleship armor, they were effectively useless. Her Mark 15 torpedoes had a range of 6,000 yd. To reach firing position, Roberts would need to close to within 4 miles of ships that could kill her at 15.
Copeland had read the action reports from previous battles. He knew what happened when light escorts fought heavy units. USS Johnston at the battle off Cape Esperance. Crippled by the first salvo, sunk within an hour. USS Laffey at Guadalcanal. 14-in shells through her engine room. Dead in the water. Finished by torpedoes.
The Japanese were already firing. Colored splashes walked across the water toward the carriers. Red, green, yellow, purple. Each battleship and cruiser used dye in their shells, so observers could track their fall of shot. The rainbow salvos meant multiple ships had locked firing solutions. A 1,745-ton destroyer escort was about to charge a 72,000 ton battleship.
Hit that like button so this story reaches the people who need to hear it. Subscribe if you haven’t already. Back to Roberts. Copeland looked at his crew. Gunners Mate third class Paul Carr stood at his station on the after 5-in mount. Lieutenant Lucky Trowbridge waited in the engine room with his hand on the throttle controls.
The torpedo crews checked their Mark 15s one final time. At 07:35, Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague ordered the destroyers and destroyer escorts to make a torpedo attack. It was a death sentence phrased as a tactical command. Small boys attack. Copeland reached for the ship’s announcing system. His next order would send Roberts charging directly into the guns of the most powerful battleship ever built. Copeland gave the order at 07:40.
Roberts turned hard to starboard and increased speed. The torpedo run would require closing from 8 mi to 4 mi under direct fire from battleships and cruisers. Standard doctrine called for destroyers to make high-speed dashes using smoke for concealment. Roberts would follow the same playbook despite weighing half what a fleet destroyer weighed.
Lieutenant Lucky Trowbridge stood in the forward engine room watching his gauges. The John C. Butler class destroyer escorts were designed with two boilers feeding steam to twin turbines. Maximum design pressure was 450 lb per square inch. That pressure delivered 24 kn in calm seas. Against Yamato’s 31 kn top speed, 24 kn meant Roberts would be run down and destroyed before reaching torpedo range.
Trowbridge made his decision in seconds. He ordered both boiler rooms to bypass every safety valve and pressure relief system. The boiler crews opened the fuel oil flow to maximum. Trowbridge watched the pressure gauges climb past 450 lb, 500, 550, 600, 660 lb per square inch. The turbines screamed.
The deck plates vibrated. Steam pressure at 660 pounds per square inch exceeded design specifications by 46%. If a boiler failed at this pressure, the explosion would kill everyone in both engine rooms and the ship. If a steam line ruptured, superheated steam at 600° would fill the compartments in seconds. Roberts accelerated. 25 knots. 26. 27.
At 28 knots, she was moving four knots faster than her designers had ever intended. The extra speed came from engineering margins built in for safety. Trowbridge was burning those margins to buy his ship a chance. On deck, the other destroyers were already making their runs. USS Johnston charged directly at the Japanese line.
USS Hoel followed close behind. USS Heermann angled for the battleships. All three were Fletcher-class destroyers with five 5-in guns and 10 torpedo tubes. All three displaced 2,100 tons. They had the speed and armament to make credible torpedo attacks. Roberts had two 5-in guns and three torpedo tubes.
Her thin hull plating was designed to stop small-caliber shells and shell fragments, not armor-piercing rounds from 8-in or 14-in guns. A direct hit from a cruiser would pass completely through both sides of her hull. A battleship shell would detonate inside her and break her in half. The smoke screen from the destroyers ahead provided some concealment.
Roberts steamed through the chemical fog at 28 knots, heading for the Japanese heavy cruiser Chokai, 8-in main battery, 13,000 tons displacement, flagship of Cruiser Division Seven. She was leading the Japanese pursuit of the escort carriers. The torpedo crews prepared their Mark 15 torpedoes for launch.
Each torpedo weighed 3,200 pounds fully fueled. Warhead carried 820 lb of torpex explosive. Range at high speed was 6,000 yd. At 28 knots, Roberts would need to close to 4,000 yd to guarantee hits. That meant entering point-blank range for Chokai’s 8-in guns. At 0750, a Japanese shell struck Roberts’ mast.
The impact sent shrapnel across the deck and jammed the torpedo mount. The torpedo crews worked to clear the jam while Roberts continued closing. Chokai was firing steadily now. Her forward turrets tracked Roberts through the smoke. Each 8-in shell weighed 250 lb. A single hit in the right location would disable Roberts completely.
The range counter clicked down. 6,000 yd, 5,000, 4,500. Roberts was inside the engagement envelope where Japanese gunnery training gave cruiser crews decisive advantages. Chokai’s rate of fire was three rounds per minute per gun. With five 8-in guns in her forward turrets, she could throw 15 shells at Roberts every minute.
At 0800 hours, the torpedo mount crews cleared the jam. Roberts had reached 4,000 yd. Copeland gave the order to fire. Three Mark 15 torpedoes launched from their tubes and entered the water. Their contra-rotating propellers spun up to speed. They ran straight and hot toward Chokai’s hull. Roberts immediately reversed course and disappeared back into the smoke.
The next 35 minutes would determine whether a 1,745 ton destroyer escort could damage ships built to withstand punishment from battleships. At 0810, Roberts emerged from the smoke screen. The heavy cruiser Chikuma appeared through the haze at 4,800 yd firing broadsides at the escort carriers.
Copeland ordered his forward 5-in gun to open fire. Gunners Mate Third Class Paul Carr commanded the aft gun mount. Both guns began firing on Chikuma simultaneously. Roberts closed the range to 2,600 yd. At that distance, her 5-in shells could penetrate Chikuma’s superstructure and upper armor. The forward gun crew loaded and fired as fast as the hydraulic rammer could cycle, three rounds per minute.
The aft gun, under Carr’s command, fired faster, manual ramming after the hydraulic system failed, four rounds per minute sustained. Chikuma divided her fire between Roberts and the carriers. Her 8-in guns struggled to track Roberts at close range. The Japanese cruiser’s fire control systems were calibrated for long-range engagements against other cruisers and battleships.
Roberts’ small size and high speed created targeting problems. Chikuma’s salvos fell long, then short, then over. Roberts did not have Chikuma’s targeting problems. At 2,600 yd, the 5-in gun crews could see their shells impact. Carr’s aft gun hit Chikuma’s bridge structure. Flames erupted from the superstructure.
Another salvo destroyed the cruiser’s number three gun turret. The turret went silent and did not return fire. The forward gun continued firing at Chikuma’s waterline. Armor-piercing shells at this range could penetrate the cruiser’s side armor below the main belt. Several shells struck home near Chikuma’s engineering spaces.
Black smoke began pouring from her funnels. Carr’s gun crew fired without pause. The powder charges came up from the magazine. The projectiles came up from the handling room. The gun captain loaded. The rammer drove the round home. The breech closed. The gun fired. Repeat. The crew maintained this cycle for 35 continuous minutes.
At 08:20, destroyer Heermann joined the engagement against Chikuma. Her five 5-in guns added their fire to Roberts’ two guns. Chikuma was now taking hits from seven 5-in guns simultaneously. Her superstructure was burning. Her number three turret was destroyed. Her speed dropped as damage accumulated in her engineering spaces.
Roberts fired her entire load of anti-aircraft ammunition at Chikuma’s superstructure. The 40-mm guns raked the cruiser’s bridge and fire control positions. The 20-mm guns targeted the cruiser’s search radar and radio antennas. At close range, these lighter weapons could disable critical systems and kill exposed crew members.
The range between Roberts and Chikuma fluctuated between 2,600 yd and 4,800 yd as both ships maneuvered. Roberts’ higher speed allowed her to control the engagement distance. When Chikuma’s guns found the range, Roberts accelerated and opened the distance. When Chikuma turned away, Roberts closed and resumed firing.
By 08:35, Roberts’ aft gun had fired 324 rounds. The forward gun had fired approximately 280 rounds. Combined with the anti-aircraft batteries, Roberts had expended over 600 rounds of ammunition in 35 minutes against ships designed to withstand sustained bombardment from battleship-caliber weapons.
Then the battleships entered the fight. Yamato’s forward turrets rotated toward Roberts. Each 18-in gun could fire a shell every 40 seconds. Battleship Kongo added her 14-in guns to the firing solution. Battleship Haruna began tracking Roberts with her own 14-in battery. The colored splashes changed.
No longer the green and purple of cruiser fire. Now red and yellow marked the fall of battleship shells. The splashes were three times larger. Each salvo displaced enough water to swamp a small boat. At 08:51, two shells struck Roberts. The first hit near the forward gun mount. The second penetrated the aft engine room.
The explosion killed three men instantly and ruptured steam lines throughout the engineering spaces. Roberts’ speed dropped from 28 knots to 17 knots in seconds. Dead in the water meant dead. The Japanese battleships had finally found their range. Roberts had fought for 51 minutes against overwhelming firepower.
Now, the ships she had damaged wanted revenge, and three more battleships were lining up to deliver it. At 17 knots, Roberts became a stationary target by battleship standards. Yamato could close the distance at 14 knots. Kongo and Haruna could run her down at 16 knots. The mathematical certainty of the situation was absolute.
Roberts could not escape. She could only continue fighting. Carr’s aft gun kept firing. The hydraulic rammer had failed 20 minutes earlier. The gun crew was manually ramming each round into the breech. Loading powder charge, ramming projectile, closing breech, firing. The process took longer without hydraulics, but Carr maintained a steady rhythm.
Two rounds per minute, then one round per minute as fatigue set in. The forward 5-in gun remained in action despite the damage from the first hit. The gun captain kept his crew loading and firing at any Japanese ship within range. Target selection became irrelevant. Fire at whatever appeared through the smoke.
Cruisers, battleships, it made no difference. Roberts was going to sink. The only question was how much damage she could inflict first. At 08:55, battleship Kongo fired a full salvo at Roberts from 11,000 yards. Nine 14-in guns. Each shell weighed 1,485 lb. The time of flight was approximately 17 seconds.
Roberts had 17 seconds to maneuver on one damaged engine producing half power. The first salvo missed. Kongo’s fire control adjusted. The second salvo bracketed Roberts. One shell short, one shell over. One shell hit the waterline amidships. The 14-in armor-piercing shell penetrated Roberts’ whole plating as if it were paper.
The shell traveled completely through the ship before detonating in the water on the far side. The explosion opened a hole 40 ft long and 10 ft wide in Roberts’ port side. Water poured into the engineering spaces. The damage control parties rigged emergency pumps, but the pumps could not keep pace with the flooding.
Roberts began listing to port. The list increased from 5° to 10° in 3 minutes. At 0900 exactly, Kongo fired again. Three 14-in shells struck Roberts simultaneously. One hit the forward superstructure. One hit the after deckhouse. One penetrated the remaining engine room and detonated inside.
The engine room explosion killed everyone in the compartment. Superheated steam vented through the ruptured bulkheads. The main turbine seized. The electrical generators went offline. Roberts lost all power. No engines, no electricity, no pumps. The list increased to 15°. Carr’s after gun took a direct hit from the deckhouse explosion.
Shrapnel killed two crew members instantly. Fragmentation wounded four others. A powder charge detonated prematurely in the breech. The explosion wrecked the gun’s firing mechanism and blew Carr backward against the bulkhead. Carr sustained severe wounds to his abdomen, internal injuries, massive blood loss.
He could not stand without support. Another crew member tried to help him to the main deck. Carr refused. He crawled back to his gun. One round remained in the ready rack. The last 5-in shell Roberts had available. Carr attempted to load the round manually. The gun’s breech was damaged beyond use. The loading mechanism was destroyed.
The barrel was cracked. The gun would never fire again. Carr kept trying to force the shell into the ruined breach. He believed if he could load one more round, fire one more shot, it might make the difference. At 09:10, Copeland gave the order to abandon ship. Roberts was listing 22° to port.
The main deck was awash. Fires burned throughout the superstructure. The engineering spaces were flooded. No power, no propulsion, no way to fight the fires or control the flooding. The crew began moving to the main deck. Carr remained at his gun, still holding the last shell. Another crew member physically pulled him away from the mount and tried to carry him topside.
Carr died before reaching the weather deck. 20 years old, gun captain for 5 months. 324 rounds fired in 35 minutes. He went down with his gun still loaded in his hands. Roberts had 11 minutes left before she slipped beneath the surface. The crew assembled on the main deck at 09:15. Roberts was listing 30° to port.
The list was increasing 1° per minute. Water covered the port side weather deck. The starboard side was rising out of the water as the ship rolled. Copeland ordered the life rafts released. Roberts carried three large life rafts and multiple floater nets. The crew pushed the rafts over the side and jumped after them.
The water temperature was 82° Fahrenheit, warm enough to prevent hypothermia, not warm enough to prevent exhaustion over extended periods. 120 men made it off the ship alive. 89 had died in the battle, most killed by shell fragments and explosions. Some killed when 14-in shells detonated inside the ship.
Others killed by the engineering spaces flooding. Carr died from his wounds minutes before the order to abandon ship. At 09:23, Roberts rolled past 45°. The starboard side of her hull was completely exposed. The propellers hung motionless in the air. The The was jammed hard over from the last evasive maneuver.
Paint on the hole showed scorch marks from near miss explosions and shell splashes. The Japanese fleet was withdrawing. At 09:11, Vice Admiral Kurita had ordered his center force to break off the engagement and retire north. 23 Japanese warships turned away from the escort carriers and headed back toward the San Bernardino Strait.
The reason for Kurita’s decision remained unclear. His force had suffered damage from the destroyer attacks and air strikes. Several cruisers were burning. Chikuma was dead in the water with her engineering spaces flooded, but Kurita’s battleships were intact. Yamato had expended less than 10% of her main battery ammunition.
Kongo and Haruna could still make 28 knots. The escort carriers were defenseless and within gun range. Kurita could have annihilated Taffy 3 and proceeded to Leyte Gulf. Instead, he withdrew. The invasion fleet at Leyte Gulf survived. General MacArthur’s ground forces continued landing supplies and reinforcements without interruption.
The strategic objective that Roberts had been ordered to protect remained secure. At 09:55, Roberts’ list reached 60°. The ship hung suspended between floating and sinking. Water poured through the shell holes in her side. Air trapped in sealed compartments kept her from going under immediately.
The air vented slowly through ruptures in the deck plating. At 10:05, the trapped air exhausted. Roberts rolled completely over to port. Her keel broke the surface for several seconds. Then she slid stern first beneath the waves. The bow rose vertically pointing at the sky. The forward 5-in gun mount was still trained to starboard frozen in position from the last time it fired.
The bow hung there for 10 seconds. Then Roberts disappeared. 120 men were in the water. Three life rafts, multiple floater nets, no rescue ships in sight. The battle was still ongoing to the north where the destroyers Johnston and Hoel had also been sunk. The escort carriers were running south at maximum speed. Every available ship was engaged in combat or evacuation operations.
The men in the water could hear explosions in the distance, aircraft engines overhead as Navy and Marine pilots continued attacking the retiring Japanese fleet. The sound of gunfire gradually faded as the center force withdrew beyond visual range. By noon, the sounds of battle had stopped completely. Silence. The survivors clung to their rafts and floater nets.
The sun climbed toward its apex. Surface water temperature increased from 82° to 86°. Dehydration would become critical within 24 hours. The nearest American ships were at Leyte Gulf, 60 mi southwest. The survivors had no radio, no signaling devices beyond manual semaphore and reflecting sunlight off metal surfaces.
No way to communicate their position to searchers. Rescue would depend on American forces searching the battle area after securing the invasion fleet. That search would not begin for hours, possibly days. The men in the water had no food, no fresh water, no shelter from the sun, and the Philippine Sea had sharks.
The first 12 hours tested basic survival. 120 men distributed across three life rafts and multiple floater nets spread over half a square mile of ocean. The rafts held 15 to 20 men each. The floater nets supported groups of five to 10 men clinging to rope mesh. Men with severe wounds required constant attention.
Shell fragment injuries, burns from steam explosions, broken bones from being thrown against bulkheads during the battle. The most seriously wounded men could not hold on to the rafts without assistance. Other survivors had to support them continuously. Dehydration began within 6 hours. The human body loses approximately 1 L of water per hour through perspiration and respiration in tropical heat.
Without fresh water intake, dehydration symptoms appear rapidly. Thirst, dry mouth, decreased urine output, confusion. The men had no fresh water. Drinking seawater would accelerate dehydration and cause kidney failure. Solar radiation was severe. No cloud cover, no shade. Direct sunlight on exposed skin caused second-degree burns within 4 hours.
The men tried to rotate positions on the rafts so everyone could get brief periods in the shadow cast by other survivors. The shadow moved as the sun moved. The relief was temporary and minimal. Several men died from their wounds during the first night. Combat injuries that might have been survivable with immediate medical treatment became fatal without surgery or blood transfusions.
Internal bleeding, infection, shock. The survivors pushed the bodies away from the rafts. The alternative was keeping corpses among the living. At dawn on October 26th, the count was 115 survivors. Five men had died during the night. The remaining survivors faced a second day with no water, no food, and no sign of rescue.
Sharks appeared on the morning of the second day. Multiple species inhabited the Philippine Sea. Tiger sharks, bull sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks. The sharks were attracted by blood in the water from wounded men and by the vibrations from men treading water. The sharks circled the rafts and floater nets. They approached cautiously at first, testing the survivors’ reactions.
When men kicked at the sharks or splashed water, the sharks withdrew temporarily. When men became too exhausted to resist, the sharks attacked. Several men were pulled under during shark attacks. The survivors could hear the struggles underwater. Thrashing, bubbles breaking the surface, then silence.
The sharks were feeding. The men in the rafts could do nothing except hold on tighter and pray they would would be next. By noon on October 26th, the count was 105 survivors. 10 more men lost to shark attacks and wounds. 48 hours in the water, severe dehydration, extreme exhaustion.
Some men were hallucinating from dehydration and sun exposure. They saw rescue ships that did not exist. They heard aircraft that were not there. The survivors tried to maintain group cohesion. Men who drifted away from the rafts often could not swim back. Currents separated individuals from the main groups.
Once separated, a lone man had almost no chance. The sharks targeted isolated individuals. During the afternoon of the second day, several men gave up. They released their grip on the rafts and floater nets. They slipped beneath the surface without struggling. Exhaustion and dehydration had drained their will to continue fighting.
Death by drowning was faster than death by dehydration. The sun set on October 26th. The survivors had been in the water for 33 hours. No rescue ships, no search aircraft, no indication that anyone knew their location or was looking for them. The battle area covered hundreds of square miles. The survivors occupied a tiny fraction of that area.
Finding them required searching methodically through vast expanses of empty ocean. At dawn on October 27th, the count was 98 survivors. 22 men dead in 45 hours. The remaining survivors were approaching the physiological limits of human endurance. Severe dehydration causes organ failure after 72 hours without water. The survivors had 27 hours before that deadline.
Then someone spotted aircraft on the horizon. At 09:30 on October 27th, a patrol plane from escort carrier Ommaney Bay spotted debris in the water 40 miles northeast of Samar. The pilot circled lower and identified life rafts. He radioed the coordinates to the nearest surface vessels. A patrol craft designated PC 623 altered course to investigate.
PC 623 reached the survivors at 11:15, 50 hours and 5 minutes after Roberts sank. The patrol craft crew threw lines to the rafts and began pulling men aboard. Many survivors could not climb the nets without assistance. The PC crew had to physically lift them onto the deck. The survivors were in severe condition.
Advanced dehydration, second and third-degree sunburns covering exposed skin, saltwater ulcers on legs and arms. Multiple men had wounds from the battle that had become infected during 50 hours in tropical seawater. Several were unconscious from dehydration and exhaustion. The patrol craft took 120 men aboard.
Every survivor who had lasted 50 hours in the water made it onto the rescue vessel. The men who had died during those 50 hours were gone. Their bodies had drifted away or been taken by sharks. The exact count of men who died in the water versus men who died on the ship remained uncertain. PC 623 transferred the survivors to landing craft infantry vessels that transported them to Leyte Gulf.
From there, the most seriously wounded went aboard hospital ship USS Comfort. The walking wounded received treatment at field hospitals near the invasion beaches. The remainder stayed aboard support vessels until transport became available. Official casualty reports listed 89 men killed in action during the battle.
The number who died subsequently from wounds, shark attack, or drowning before rescue arrived was recorded as additional losses. Total dead from Roberts’ crew of 224 exceeded 100. The Navy began evaluating what had happened at Samar. Task Unit 77.4.3 had faced 23 Japanese warships with six escort carriers and seven small escorts.
The Japanese had four battleships, including Yamato, six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, 11 destroyers. Total Japanese tonnage exceeded 200,000 tons. Taffy 3 had approximately 40,000 tons total. The tonnage ratio was five to one against. The gun caliber advantage was overwhelming.
Yamato’s 18-in guns outranged every weapon Taffy 3 possessed by 15 miles. Yet Kurita had withdrawn at 09:11 without destroying the escort carriers or reaching Leyte Gulf. Three factors explained Kurita’s decision. First, the aggressive destroyer attacks had damaged or sunk multiple cruisers. Chikuma was destroyed.
Chokai was burning and would sink later that day. Suzuya had been hit by aircraft and was dead in the water. Second, continuous air attacks from the escort carriers had disrupted Japanese formations and fire control. Third, Kurita believed he was fighting fleet carriers and heavy cruisers, not escort carriers and destroyer escorts.
The deception worked because ships like Roberts fought far beyond their design capabilities. A destroyer escort engaging battleships at close range was not in the tactical playbook. Kurita’s staff could not reconcile what they were seeing with what they knew about American force dispositions. They assumed they must be fighting Halsey’s Third Fleet carriers.
Roberts received the Presidential Unit Citation, awarded to all of Task Unit 77.4.3 for extraordinary heroism in action. Gunner’s Mate Third Class Paul Carr received the Silver Star posthumously. Lieutenant Commander Copeland received the Navy Cross. Chief Engineer Lucky Trowbridge received a commendation for his engine room performance.
Three ships would later bear names honoring Roberts and her crew. USS Copeland, a frigate commissioned in 1982. USS Carr, a frigate commissioned in 1985. USS Samuel B. Roberts, a frigate commissioned in 1986. The original Roberts lay 4 miles beneath the Philippine Sea. Her exact location remained unknown for 78 years.
The wreck site became a war grave, protected by international maritime law. No salvage, no disturbance. The ship and her dead crew would rest undisturbed in the deepest darkness of the ocean, until an explorer with a submersible decided to find her. On June 22nd, 2022, explorer Victor Vescovo piloted the submersible Limiting Factor to the bottom of the Philippine Sea.
He was searching for Roberts. Previous attempts to locate the wreck had failed due to inaccurate historical records of where the ship sank. The battle area covered hundreds of square miles. Roberts could be anywhere within that zone. Vescovo’s team used advanced side-scan sonar, capable of operating at extreme depths. Most sonar systems function to 6,000 m maximum.
This system was rated to 11,000 m, full ocean depth capability. The team conducted six dives over eight days, methodically scanning the seafloor. On the final dive, the sonar detected a debris field. Vescovo descended to investigate. At 6,895 m depth, the wreck came into view, 22,621 ft below the surface, deeper than Mount Kilimanjaro is tall.
The deepest shipwreck ever discovered. The wreck lay in two sections separated by approximately 16 ft. The bow section had struck the bottom first, with enough force to buckle the whole plating. The stern section had separated during the descent. Both sections were intact and recognizable.
Vescovo photographed the aft gun mount, Paul Carr’s gun. The 5-in barrel was still there, pointed skyward at the angle it held when Roberts rolled over. The breech mechanism was visible. The loading tray where Carr had tried to load his last round remained in position. The hull number 413 was clearly visible on the bow.
Positive identification. This was Roberts. The submersible’s cameras recorded the torpedo launcher, the three-tube mount that had fired the Mark 15 torpedoes at Chokai. The mast that had been struck by Japanese shells and jammed the torpedo mount before the crew cleared it. The wreck showed extensive battle damage.
Shell holes in the hull plating, structural damage from 14-in impacts. The engineering spaces were collapsed from the internal explosions. The superstructure was heavily damaged. Every mark told part of the story of Roberts’ final 51 minutes of combat. The discovery confirmed Roberts as the deepest shipwreck ever located and surveyed.
The previous record holder was destroyer USS Johnston, found by Vescovo’s team in 2021 at 21,228 ft. Johnston had also been sunk at Samar. Both ships died protecting the same invasion fleet. Both earned the same presidential unit citation. Both now rest at depths that make them almost unreachable. The wreck site is protected under the sunken military craft act.
No salvage permitted. No artifact recovery. No unauthorized disturbance. Roberts is a war grave containing the remains of American sailors who died in combat. The site will remain undisturbed. The discovery brought closure to surviving family members. Paul Carr’s sisters had maintained contact with the Navy for decades asking about their brother’s ship.
Robert Copeland’s descendants had searched for information about where Roberts went down. The wreck’s location answered questions that had remained open for 78 years. If this story stayed with you, hit that like button. One click tells YouTube this story matters and puts it in front of more people. Subscribe and turn on notifications.
We dig through military archives, declassified reports, and veteran memoirs to bring back stories exactly like this one. Stories about destroyer escorts charging battleships, about gunners loading their last round with bare hands, about sailors holding on for 50 hours in open water. These are not Hollywood scripts.
These are real men who did real things. Drop a comment and tell us where you’re watching from. United States, United Kingdom, Philippines, Australia? Our viewers span the entire globe. If someone in your family served in the Navy at Leyte Gulf or aboard any ship in any war, tell us about them.
Every comment keeps this community breathing. Thank you for watching, and thank you for making sure the crew of Samuel B. Roberts stays above the silence they’ve rested in for 80 years. They fought like a battleship. The least we can do is remember them like one.
