Groton company helps pinpoint, take images of WWII shipwrecks in Aleutian Islands

Groton ― A local maritime technology company played a role in pinpointing and taking images of shipwreck sites from World War II near the Aleutian Island of Attu.Researchers exploring the maritime archaeology of Attu, the most western part of the Aleutian Islands, where the Battle of Attu took place in 1943, used Groton-based ThayerMahan's advanced sonar imagery equipment this past summer to find two shipwrecks: the Japanese Kotohira Maru and the SS Dellwood of the United States. World Scan Project of Japan used drones to locate a third: the Cheribon Maru.The synthetic aperture sonar system works by moving while sending out pings of sounds and "listening" in return to build a high-resolution image, said Alexander Unrein, senior hydrographer and director of survey for ThayerMahan Ocean Technologies. Unrein is the project manager for the ThayerMahan team, which also included Connor Link, Alexander Campbell and Alex Bolvin.The technology provided underwater imagery of the waters around Attu, as what existed before were hand-drawn maps and lead line surveys from the 1940s, said Campbell, a hydrographer and survey technician who traveled to Alaska to work on the project. This created a "snapshot" of the wrecks from the 1940s, said Link, a hydrographer and survey technician who also traveled to Alaska. The Japanese vessels were sunk by U.S. forces, while the SS Dellwood sank when it struck a submerged pinnacle, they said.With Attu being so remote, the artifacts remained preserved, said Link. He described it as a piece of history "frozen in time." The team said they saw among the debris items such as anchors and door locks, along with submarine netting. They said researchers will be sifting through the imagery to identify pieces of the boats and artifacts.Unrein said it's important to preserve the history and capture the images, because over time the artifacts will slowly degrade and disappear.As it is expensive to travel to the remote area, Campbell said he hopes proving there are significant artifacts off the island may encourage more interest and help obtain grant funding for future research."In an environment like that, we're just scraping the surface," said Campbell. "We could have spent months out there doing that and still not found everything that had been historically significant."Forgotten battleThe idea began when Dominic Bush, co-principal investigator for the project who is now a research associate with Ships of Discovery, Inc., was completing his Ph.D. at East Carolina University. Bush, whose mother's side of the family is Native Aleut and whose grandmother was born in Alaska in 1940, said that when he stumbled across the Battle of Attu (1943), he was stunned to see such a fiercely fought battle remain understudied.According to the National Park Service, in 1942, Japan bombed Dutch Harbor on Unalaska and invaded Attu and Kiska. "The Unangax̂ (Aleut) residents of Attu were taken to Japan for the duration of the war," the post from the National Park Service said. "Of the 40 captives, 16 (40%) died from disease and starvation." Then, in 1943, U.S. troops landed to take the island back from Japanese forces. The National Park Service describes the battle as "one of the deadliest battles of World War II" but "one of the least well-known."Bush said as an underwater archaeologist, he wanted to design a project to explore the marine part of the Attu battlefield and locate sunken ships and aircraft. His Ph.D. advisor, Jennifer McKinnon, encouraged him to pursue grant funding."My goal was to increase our understanding of American history by bringing attention to this mostly forgotten battle, which not only impacted the nearly 3,000 soldiers who died on the island, but forever disrupted the lives of Attu's native Unangan (Aleut) population," Bush said.He said the research team included Jason Raupp, assistant professor in the program in maritime studies at ECU, Caroline Funk of the University at Buffalo, and ThayerMahan. The project was awarded a $707,000 grant from the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration for sonar and underwater camera surveys, as well as a $69,000 grant from the National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program. Two Alaska Natives came aboard the research vessel as tribal liaisons.Bush said he is analyzing the data so it can be used for museum exhibits, journal articles, and reports. Raupp said the researchers are hoping to draw more attention to a battle that was a significant part of the U.S. war effort in the Pacific."It really deserves more attention, so we're hoping that these images will allow us to help promote this battlefield in a more meaningful way," he said.k.drelich@theday.com