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Before he was an icon, before he was president, John F Kennedy was a torpedo boat captain in World War II. A National Geographic expedition searches for the sunken remains of Kennedy's PT-109.
The Solomons are an isolated chain of volcanic islands that stretches for nearly a thousand miles across the South Pacific. Two mighty nations, Japan and the United States, fought for control of these tiny spits of land. One of the great stories to emerge from the war in the Pacific, John F Kennedy and PT-109.
Nearly 60 years later, explorer Bob Ballard, the man who found the Titanic, has come here to pull back the veil of history. This is the research vessel "Grace Scout",on assignment for National Geographic. A converted supply ship, it's rigged for underwater exploration. It carries two remote controlled video robots, side scanning sonar and a crew of dedicated technicians. Its mission, to find the sunken remains of the torpedo boat captained by John F Kennedy during World WarⅡ.
In the summer of 1943, these straits were crowded with Japanese warships. A clandestine network of coast watchers working with local scouts supplied the US navy with information on Japanese ship and troop movements. Aaron Cohmaner, one of Kennedy's rescuers, was one such scout.
"I was young, but I wasn't scared. So even if the Japanese was around, I just wander past them and report their activities. We hated the Japanese. "
In his investigation of Blackett Strait, Ballard found a patch of sea where, he thinks, the Japanese supply route known as the Tokyo Express must have run, and where the collision of PT-109 most likely occured.
"Tokyo Express is coming down Blackett Strait, probably hugging the shore over here, comes roaring back and right here smack. "
After three days of mapping the sea..."Would you get on the scales on each of those?" And that second, but that's definitely not a rock. That's big enough, and strong enough, and isolated enough. So this is our best shot , target 21. They launch "Little Herc", the video robot. It begins its descent . Off by itself, on an empty quarter of the seabed ,one lone target rings true. It looks like a torpedo tube, rusted with time. No one is sure. Could it be part of the PT Boat buried under the sand?
"And, it's the right spot. "
torpedo boat n.
A small, fast warship equipped for firing torpedoes. 鱼雷艇
clandestine a.
Kept or done in secret, often in order to conceal an illicit or improper purpose. 秘密的，暗中进行的 |
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