Greater than a century after a German U-boat torpedoed the USS Jacob Jones off the coast of Britain throughout World Conflict I, a group of divers retrieved the American destroyer’s huge brass bell.
On December 6, 1917 — eight months after the US joined the struggle — the Jacob Jones was attacked by a submarine off the southwest coast of Britain. It solely took eight minutes for the massive ship to sink fully, in line with the US Naval Institute, killing 64 sailors within the course of.
The ship would languish almost 400 toes beneath the water’s floor for greater than 100 years earlier than personal divers found the wreck web site in 2022.
The Naval Historical past and Heritage Command in Washington, DC, spearheaded a diving mission to retrieve the Jacob Jones’ big brass bell from the depths earlier this yr. A British authorities diving group was capable of efficiently increase the 80-pound bell and survey the wreck web site in January, in line with the Navy.
Researchers used an underwater robotic belonging to the British Protection Ministry’s Salvage and Marine Operations to lift the bell, which nonetheless has the imprints of “Jacob Jones” and “1915” clearly seen in its brass, The Washington Put up reported.
“We flipped it upright so we might learn the identify and make sure the id,” Dom Robinson, one of many divers, advised the newspaper.
The salvage group positioned a wreath and an American flag on the wreck web site after retrieving the bell, in line with The US Naval Institute.
Navy shipwrecks, that are the ultimate resting place for sailors killed in motion, sometimes aren’t disturbed by salvaging missions. However the effort to retrieve the Jacob Jones’ bell was pursued due to plundering considerations, retired Rear Adm. Sam Cox stated in a press release concerning the mission.
Most wreck websites from each World Conflict I and World Conflict II have been stripped of their worthwhile gadgets; something brass or bronze is gone, Cox advised The Put up.
“We did not need to take the prospect of somebody operating off with the bell,” he advised the outlet.
The bell, which is at present in England, is about to be returned to the Washington Navy Yard within the coming months the place it is going to head to the command’s underwater archeology lab, in line with The Put up.
The Jacob Jones was the primary and solely US destroyer misplaced within the struggle, in line with the US Naval Institute. The ship was tasked with escorting convoys and rescuing survivors whose ships had been torpedoed throughout the struggle.
