The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) located the wreck of an American World War II-era warship 82 years after she was sunk, authorities said.

Collaborating with the U.S. Navy, the RAN located the USS Edsall (DD-219) on the ocean floor using “advanced robotic and autonomous systems” typically used to survey marine environments, Australia’s Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, said. (RELATED: Researchers Discover Shipwreck From Infamous Nazi Invasion)

The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Edsall (DD-219) during the early 1920s. Wikimedia Commons/Public/U.S. Navy, Public Domain

The USS Edsall (DD 219) was sunk off the coast of Australia during a battle against Japanese forces in March 1942, U.S. Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy added.

Kennedy praised the Edsall’s captain, Joshua James Nix, and his crew, for having “fought valiantly, evading 1400 shells from Japanese battleships and cruisers, before being attacked by 26 carrier dive bombers, taking only one fatal hit. There were no survivors.”

“The commanding officer of Edsall lived up to the U.S. Navy tenet, ‘Don’t give up the ship,’ even when faced with overwhelming odds,” Chief of U.S. Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti said in a statement released Monday while also thanking the RAN. She added that the vessel was “lost in a valiant battle against the Imperial Japanese Navy.”

There were 185 U.S. Navy officers and sailors and 31 U.S. Army Air Corps pilots aboard the Edsall at the time of her sinking, Franchetti added. Nearly all of them perished in the event.

The Japanese forces retrieved the few survivors from the sinking warship and beheaded them in a prison camp, according to historians, The Guardian reported.

The U.S. Navy Clemson-class destroyer USS Edsall (DD-219) (misidentified as “HMS Pope”) being sunk on 1 March 1942 south of Java. Imperial Japanese Navy warships, including battleships Kirishima and Hiei, resumed firing on the immobilized Edsall near Java on 1 March 1942 after the destroyer has been heavily damaged by carrier dive bombers. The destroyer sank moments later. A Japanese camera-man, probably on the cruiser Tone, filmed about 90 seconds of her destruction. Photo dated March 1, 1942. Wikimedia Commons/Public/U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, Public Domain

“This find gives us the opportunity for today’s generation of Sailors and Navy civilians to be inspired by their valor and sacrifice,” Franchetti said, while also highlighting the ongoing Australia, U.K., U.S. (AUKUS) trilateral security partnership.

On Remembrance Day in Australia and Veterans Day in the U.S., we honor those we have lost and those who have served.

Alongside @CN_Australia, Ambassador Kennedy thanks the @Australian_Navy for discovering USS Edsall, sunk off the coast of Australia during WWII. Lest We Forget. pic.twitter.com/haklYuHwQo

— U.S. Embassy Australia (@USEmbAustralia) November 11, 2024

The Edsall was so adroit at evading attacks that the Japanese nicknamed her “the dancing mouse,” according to The Guardian.

The Edsall served valiantly in the early years of the Pacific battles of World War II. Fighting alongside Australian warships, the Edsall protected Australia and other allied territories in the Pacific and helped sink the Japanese submarine I-124, Hammond said.

“The joint efforts and engagements such as the Battle of the Coral Sea and the defense of allied territories in the Pacific forged bonds between the U.S. and Australian sailors that continue to this day,” Hammond continued.

The Clemson-class destroyer will now be preserved as a war grave, Kennedy said.

“[We] hope that the families of the heroes who died there will know that their loved ones rest in peace. We will tell their stories, learn from their bravery and be inspired by their sacrifice. We will always remember them,” she added.

“We honor their families and hope this discovery will be a reminder of the enduring respect and appreciation we have for their loved ones. Lest we forget,” Hammond said.

The Edsall was named after the U.S. Navy’s Seaman Norman Eckley Edsall, who was killed by Samoan warriors on April 1, 1899 while trying to carry a severely injured Lieutenant Philip Van Horne Lansdale to safety amid the Second Samoan Civil War, according to Naval History and Heritage Command Director Samuel Cox.