In September 1779, John Paul Jones’ flagship Bonhomme Richard was fatally damaged during its famous North Sea battle with HMS Serapis. Jones shifted his flag to Serapis, while his ship drifted for approximately 36 hours before sinking. Since 2006 NHHC has been involved in over a dozen missions with partners in search of Bonhomme Richard. Drift models were developed to predict the wreck location based on log books, eyewitness accounts, and historic weather data. Over 600 square nautical miles have been surveyed and dozens of wrecks have been inspected. Currently, two wrecks are under investigation, but the project requires continued surveying to complete the drift model trajectory. This year, NHHC and partners use advanced AUV technology to visit these wrecks and continue surveying swaths of the North Sea. This paper summarizes past efforts and looks at the results of the current survey as part of the Navy’s 250^th commemoration.

This paper presents preliminary findings from the 2025 field investigation of the site of the gunboat Philadelphia in Lake Champlain. Philadelphia, lost during the battle of Valcour in 1776, was raised in 1935 and currently resides in the National Museum of American History. Building upon previous investigations of the Valcour submerged battlefield, our recent fieldwork incorporates systematic diver inspections and metal detection surveys to further document the spatial distribution and condition of artifacts and site features, and to recover and conserve associated materials. Our primary objective is to refine our understanding of Philadelphia's final engagement during the Battle of Valcour Island, focusing on artifact scatter patterns, hull remains, and associated ordnance. Additionally, we aim to evaluate processes affecting artifact preservation, including environmental factors and anthropogenic impacts. These efforts will enhance our historical understanding of Philadelphia’s role in the Revolutionary War, enriching interpretations ahead of the 250th anniversary of her sinking.

The cold dark waters of Lake Champlain have preserved an invaluable record of the military actions that took place on its waters during the American Revolution. Included among these resources are a number of shipwrecks, submerged battlefields, as well as military infrastructure sites. This presentation will give an overview of the plethora of well-preserved resources that have been explored archaeologically in and around Lake Champlain. Particular focus will be paid to ongoing field research at Arnold’s Bay and on the site of American gunboat Spitfire which sank during the retreat from the Battle of Valcour Bay in 1776, both projects are being conducted in partnership with US Navy History and Heritage Command.

In February 2025, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) documented the remains of USS F-1 (SS-20), a World War I-era submarine. While conducting engineering tests off San Diego, California, in December 1917, USS F-1 sank following a collision with sister ship, USS F-3, resulting in the deaths of 19 Sailors. Today, the wreck is considered a Department of the Navy sunken military craft and maritime grave. During the recent investigation, WHOI’s National Deep Submergence Facility and NHHC’s Underwater Archaeology Branch visited and photogrammetrically surveyed the site using the human occupied vehicle (HOV), Alvin. First-hand observations and collected data, coupled with the resulting high-definition, three-dimensional model of the wreck, allowed NHHC to complete the first archaeological assessment of the site. This paper will recount the history of USS F-1 and highlight the recent expedition to document and commemorate this once lost Navy submarine.

In 2024, at the request of the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC), the Salvage and Marine Operations (SALMO) team of the British Ministry of Defence surveyed and proceeded to recover the bell from the wreck of USS Jacob Jones (DD-61), located near the Isles of Scilly. Jacob Jones, sunk by German U-boat in December of 1917, serves as the first U.S. destroyer lost to enemy action, and its sinking represents the greatest single loss of life associated with a U.S. Navy vessel during the Great War. The wreck was discovered in August 2022 by technical divers and since that time NHHC has coordinated with partners to undertake a site survey conducted by the National Oceanography Centre of the United Kingdom, the recovery of the bell by SALMO, and, most recently, a Remotely Operated Vehicle investigation led by Gray & Pape and Wessex Archaeology.

In April 2025, as part of the Beyond the Blue: Illuminating the Pacific campaign, NOAA and partners conducted two remotely operated vehicle dives on USS Yorktown (CV-5), with hopes of answering questions raised during previous expeditions to the site. A team of federal government, private sector archaeologists, and historians identified several core objectives including the verification of a possible aircraft wing in the hangar deck, the documentation of known areas of valor and battle damage, and annotation of remotely operated vehicle (ROV) video using the Seatube video annotation platform. These dives were also the first to locate aircraft on the Midway battlefield, and document a map mural located in the midships elevator shaft. This presentation will highlight the discoveries and results of one of the deepest shipwrecks ever visited by archaeologists, as well as opportunities to get involved in future exploration.

From 1942 to 1945, the U.S. Navy conducted Carrier Qualification Training (CQT) in Lake Michigan off two converted side-wheel steamers, USS Wolverine and USS Sable. The training program was highly successful with only 120 aircraft sunk in the lake, a considerably low number when taking into account the 35,000 pilots that qualified during CQT. Over time, these aircraft wrecks became the focus of concentrated salvage and recovery efforts that led to an estimated 50 aircraft removed from the lake. To better understand and manage the remaining wrecks, the Naval History and Heritage Command’s Underwater Archaeology Branch (UA) launched a multi-year effort, starting in 2017, to comprehensively account for and document the Navy’s sunken military craft in the lake and to develop a long-term management plan. In conjunction with a DoD Legacy Resource Management Program project, UA continued this effort in 2025 which will be the focus of this presentation.

The Douglas TBD-1 Devastator torpedo bomber was a plane of many “firsts.” Introduced in 1935, it was the first truly modern aircraft to deploy with the US fleet, featuring all-metal construction and innovations like wheel brakes and hydraulically powered folding wings. Later, in the darkest days of WWII, USN Devastator crews were among the first to fly into battle and the first to fall. During an era when carrier-based aviation revolutionized war at sea, these aviators left a historic legacy stretching across the Pacific from the Marshalls to Midway. Today, no example of this significant US Navy plane has been preserved, but that may be about to change. This paper reports on the Devastator Project partnership’s vision to pursue the archaeological recovery, conservation and exhibition of a submerged TBD-1 (BuNo 1515) from Jaluit lagoon, RMI as the last, best hope to display a representative of this important “plane of firsts.”

In the aftermath of the attack on December 7, 1941, the U.S. Navy began the massive task of salvaging the damaged and sunken battleships at Pearl Harbor. Among them, USS Oklahoma (BB-37) had been struck by multiple torpedoes and capsized over 150° to port, prevented from rolling over completely when her tripod masts and superstructure hit the sediment beneath Battleship Row. An extensive and complex salvage operation managed to right and refloat the 35,000-ton ship, but she would never return to active service. 65 years later, one of Oklahoma’s tripod mast columns was recovered off Ford Island during a dredging operation. This presentation discusses the Navy’s recent survey and condition assessment of the tripod mast column, presently displayed in Muskogee, OK, and one of the few remaining artifacts from “The Okie.”

A US Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer conducted an unarmed reconnaissance mission over the Eastern Baltic Sea when it was brought down by foreign aircraft. Ten crew members manning the Privateer are still unaccounted for. In March 2020, a cooperative investigation between Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Naval History & Heritage Command Underwater Archaeology Branch, and Voice of the Ocean was conducted on a wreck site that later was deemed by the US Navy to be this particular aircraft. The investigation led to the recovery of nine artifacts. One of the key diagnostic artifacts that helped with the aircraft’s identification was a Keystone Fairchild F-8 aerial camera. This multi-component artifact was quite unique and posed many conservation questions. This paper will delve into these questions and discuss the treatment process that best suited this artifact to ensure stability for future display at the new National Museum of the United States Navy.

The new National Museum of the U.S. Navy will provide a tangible tribute to the service and sacrifice of our Sailors. The museum will be an advanced, campus design that will bring to life the human experiences of serving in the U.S. Navy, deliver leading-edge engagement to amplify Navy priorities and operations, showcase the history and heritage of the U.S. Navy, and create a memorial to our heritage and the service and sacrifice of American Sailors.