Navy battleships
Navy battleshipsiStock

The U.S. naval destroyer USS Samuel B Roberts has been found after sinking in 1944 at a depth deeper than any previously discovered shipwreck.

According to BBC News, explorers identified the World War II era ship that sank during the Battle Off Samar in the Philippine Sea in October 1944.

It was found 4.28 miles beneath the water by Texas millionaire adventurer Victor Vescovo using a deep-diving submersible.

The depth it was discovered at is extraordinary deep, with most of the world’s ocean’s having depths of less than 3.7 miles.

The ship is believed to be mostly intact despite sinking and being deep underwater for nearly 80 years.

The destroyer was known during the war for infamously taking a last stand against the Japanese navy, who vastly outnumbered and outgunned it. During the fighting, it was able to take on several Japanese ships and proved effective until it finally sunk.

Only 120 of its crew of 224 survived. The survivors held on to life rafts for 50 hours until they were rescued.

"We like to say that steel doesn't lie and that the wrecks of these vessels are the last witnesses to the battles that they fought," Vescovo told BBC News.

"The Sammy B engaged the Japanese heavy cruisers at point blank range and fired so rapidly it exhausted its ammunition. It was down to shooting smoke shells and illumination rounds just to try to set fires on the Japanese ships, and it kept firing. It was just an extraordinary act of heroism. Those men - on both sides - were fighting to the death,” he added.

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)