NOAA Finds a Flashy Car Inside the Wreck of WWII Carrier USS Yorktown

On a recent deployment to the Pacific, a NOAA remotely operated vehicle (ROV) crew spotted an unusual vehicle inside the hangar of the lost aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5), which was lost to enemy action off Midway in 1942.

In April and May, NOAA Ocean Exploration is running a 28-day ROV and charting expedition aboard the NOAA research ship Okeanos Explorer in Papahanaumokuokea Marine National Monument, the protected archipelago that stretches westward from Kau'i to Midway Atoll. In addition to its natural riches, the area is home to historic WWII wrecks from the Battle of Midway, including Yorktown. The research effort is focused on areas of interest in waters deeper than 200 meters, where ROVs are essential for access.

Commissioned in 1937, Yorktown had a distinguished combat history. She began her first Pacific patrol just months after Pearl Harbor and saw immediate action in the Marshall Islands and the Gilberts. She played a key role in the Battle of the Coral Sea, destroying the Japanese carrier Shohoand damaging the carrier Shikaku. The action prevented a Japanese invasion force from reaching Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, slowing Japan's advance in the South Pacific.

In early June 1942, Yorktown helped lead the defense of Midway, her bombers destroying carrier Soryu early in the battle. Yorktown sustained multiple bomb and torpedo hits, and after taking on a heavy list, her commander ordered abandon ship. She did not sink, however, and a salvage crew initially returned to try and right her for a tow back to Pearl Harbor - but a Japanese submarine attack on June 6 damaged her further, and her list increased. She slipped below the next morning.

Exterior of USS Yorktown's hull, April 2025 (NOAA)

Yorktown's wreck site was rediscovered by Robert Ballard in 1998, and the NOAA mission returned in April for a closer look at the ship - including some daring interior footage, requiring precise piloting to keep the ROV safely free of entanglements in close quarters. Entering the number three elevator shaft and looking forward, the ROV crew spotted a vehicle located forward on the starboard side of the hangar deck. It had a square back, curved fenders and a now-shredded soft top.

NOAA's team surmised that the car could be Adm. Frank Fletcher's flag vehicle, since USS Yorktown was his flagship. This would be consistent with a flash of chrome on the bumper and on one visible fender. Plenty of four-wheel-drive jeeps were carried aboard Yorktown and other Navy carriers in the Pacific theater, either as cargo for troops or for use as aircraft tugs - but this particular vehicle's chrome trim showed a level of flair not found on a typical GI-issue jeep.

The vehicle's true identity remains to be confirmed, and NOAA has asked for the public's help in confirming whether it may indeed have belonged to Adm. Fletcher. On further review, NOAA believes it to be a 1940-41 Ford Super Deluxe "Woody," a civilian car with distinctive wood body and a unique combination of trim on the fenders (below). Such a car would be a likelier find on a country estate than on the deck of a carrier at sea, and would have been among the last cohort of mass-market vehicles that Ford produced before switching fully to wartime production.

The jeep's half-buried fender can just be made out in footage taken from outside the hangar (NOAA)