This Post contains information on: Search Members Status, Location of Sub, What happened that day 30 July 1942, Plans, and Contacting relatives of other crew members.
>>From a comment by Bruce<<
I want to give those who haven’t been deeply involved an idea of where this project stands as of July 28 2006.
Status:
Kale and his boat the Aquila have been hauling salmon. That effort stops very suddenly about the 22 of July. Pete, who has a home in Valdez is already up there. One of Art’s crew is already in Anchorage, The others will arrive about the end of July, first of August and all will take the three hour flight to Dutch Harbor shortly afterwards. The ship will leave for Kiska the 3d or 4th. Two and one-half days trip to Kiska.
Location of sub:
There is rather good agreement as to where the confrontation took place. Aiura, the military commander on the Kana Maru, put together a map shortly after the confrontation and thanks to Yutaka and another researcher, Minoru Kamata, we have a copy. The sub appears to be on a 14 degree slope varying in depth from 600 ft to 3000 ft. A small amount of northward slippage can increase the depth substantially.
What Happened July 30 1942:
There is contradictory evidence. There was a circular path of bubbles which was a very strange maneuver for a sub to take. Some suggest that that was the result of a circular torpedo. However torpedoes travel about 46 knots while a sub travels at 9. And when a torpedo hits there is an explosion that is clearly recognizable. Witnesses did not describe that type of explosion. One of our submariners suggests that what ever happened was not the result of a single factor but rather a series of things that went wrong. That is going to make the determination difficult.
Plans:
If we locate the sub, the plan is to try to fly up a ROV up to get a closer look. Which ROV we use depends greatly on the depth. An ROV system that goes down 2000 ft weighs about 1200 lbs. The next level up is about 25,000 lbs and is unlikely to be done this year. Even if the sub is under 2000 ft there are major problems in getting the small (1200 lb) ROV to Alaska.
Contacting relatives of other crew members:
Charles Hinman of the Bowfin Sub Museum in Hawaii has provided us with email address of some of crew relatives and most have already responded. Rhonda Raye, a great niece of Paul Banes has been able to determine the home towns of all of the crew. Having that information greatly increases the likelihood of locating a relative. However, there is still a great deal to be done. I would hope that everybody takes a look at 999info.net/CrewRelations.pdf (also linked from this site) and makes an attempt to locate and notify a few relatives. It is not easy but the response is obviously very rewarding.
>>From a comment by Bruce<<
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates.