Mystery at Sea (page 5 of 6)

One Last Shot

A year later, John Abele and the search team once again found themselves aboard the Aquila, off Kiska. This time, they brought along a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), a cagelike mass of bright yellow ballast tanks and directional propellers, smaller than a minivan, festooned with sonar and video cameras. The goal: to 100-percent identify the previous year's target image.

At 10:20 p.m. on August 22, 2007, the ROV, the Max Rover, was set into the sea, just a few miles off Kiska's shore. It was an odd hour to start a search. But since leaving port the day before, the violent Bering Sea -- of Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch fame -- had gone almost supernaturally flat calm. No one was about to let this opportunity pass.

In the water, the Max Rover, lights on and propellers fired up, swam smoothly and silently away like an enormous yellow puppy.

Next came the waiting. In the wheelhouse of the Aquila, John Abele, bouncing on the balls of his feet, watched the blizzard of flotsam dots drift through the closed-circuit video that streamed from the Max Rover's array of high-definition cameras. As the ROV descended, Kiska's lonely and mysterious sea life, including orange jellyfish the size of basketballs and startled black cod, glowed in the lights.

An hour later, the Max Rover finally reached the seafloor, more than 3,000 feet below. On-screen, the grayish volcanic soil bed could be seen, naked and punctuated by the gray flatness of a haddock or a grumpy-looking crab, its claws extended toward the Rover's floodlights.

"We've got a target out at 045 degrees and about 60 meters," said Joe Caba, the Max Rover's pilot.

Slowly the object emerged. Through the darkness of the Bering Sea depths, the lights of the Max Rover fell on a mass of twisted and rusty metal standing proud on the empty seafloor, bejeweled by orange starfish. It was a submarine conning tower, or what was left of one. Around it, pipes and hoses snaked across the ship's double hull, laid bare as some of the sub's outer skin had been stripped away.

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• The Navajos WWII Unbreakable Code
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• The Mental Anguish of War
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• Four Soldiers Answer America's
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