Car found parked in hangar of sunken WWII ship, baffling historians. See photos (2025)

Defying all logic, a vehicle has been found parked in the hangar of the USS Yorktown, which was famously sunk in the Pacific by a Japanese submarine during World War II.

The baffling discovery was made Saturday, April 19, when NOAA Ocean Exploration sent a remotely operated camera inside the massive wreck, about 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu.

Yorktown was an 809-foot-long aircraft carrier, known to host about 2,200 personnel, 90 aircraft ... and apparently, one car.

“It’s a car. That’s a car,” one surprised researcher was heard saying when tires sporting shiny hubcaps came into view. “That is a full car.”

“Why is there a car on this boat?” another is heard asking.

The vehicle was found upright near the carrier’s elevator 3, and immediately had historians scrambling for explanations.

One possibility: It’s Rear Admiral Frank Fletcher’s flag car, they guessed. (USS Yorktown was his flagship.)

Closer inspection by the camera revealed flared fenders, hints of a rag top, chrome trim and and a spare tire, researchers said.

It is suspected the car is a “1940-41 Ford Super Deluxe ‘Woody’ in black,” NOAA Ocean Exploration says.

“It has a license plate on the front that can be partially read saying ’SHIP SERVICE’ at the top, but the lower part is illegible due to corrosion,” NOAA reports.

“Evidently staff cars of the Ford Super Deluxe model were common with the Navy and Army ashore; however, as of yet, they haven’t been able to find a ‘Woody’ in service for staff officers, so that is potentially unique for this ship.”

“Here’s an open request to all your automobile vehicle folks out there,” one researcher said in the livefeed. “I’m sure you are being attentive to this and you understand what you are looking at. Please post on this. It really helps.”

NOAA Ocean Exploration officials say the discovery is “an exciting find.”

“Yorktown’s salvage crew worked tirelessly to jettison anti-aircraft guns and aircraft to reduce its list (after the torpedo strike), but did they leave the car, something they could roll off the side?” NOAA officials said in an email to McClatchy News.

“Perhaps the car belonged to someone important on the ship or to the fleet: the captain or admiral.”

The vehicle may have been brought aboard at Pearl Harbor during a very brief visit for repairs “sustained during the Battle of Coral Sea,” officials said.

A Reddit debate about the vehicle quickly appeared online, with commenters noting “none of the literature ... mentioned a car being onboard for the battle.”

“Wonder if the car was intended to be offloaded on Midway following the anticipated engagement with the Japanese (if the US was victorious),” one Reddit commenter wrote. “Hangar space on carriers was (and still is) extremely valuable. Having a car occupying space would be remarkable.”

Yorktown was serving at the Battle of Midway in 1942 when Japanese carrier bombers successfully struck it with three bombs, NOAA says.

The ship was being towed back to Pearl Harbor for repairs when additional torpedoes from a Japanese submarine hit the starboard side, “causing the carrier to capsize and sink on the morning of June 7, 1942.”

NOAA Ocean Exploration visited the wreck twice as part of a 28-day expedition to explore and map deep water regions of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, “the largest contiguous fully protected conservation area under the U.S. flag” at 582,578 square miles.

The expedition marks the first time cameras have been sent inside the wreck, which was first discovered in 1998, officials said. It sits more than 3 miles deep, experts say.

The Ocean Exploration vessel E/V Nautilus visited the Yorktown wreck in 2023, and NOAA Ocean Exploration is building on data collected by that expedition.

This story was originally published April 21, 2025 at 7:45 AM.