The Eerie Watery Grave Of A Ship That Survived A Nuclear Explosion Revealed

The USS Independence was a major player during the Second World War as it helped the US Navy repel the Japanese on the high seas of the Pacific.

After the war, where it survived being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, the Independence took part in the infamous Operation Crossroads. It was used as a target for the first nuclear test called Able which gave a yield of 23 kilotons (3 kilotons more than the Nagasaki bomb and 7 kilotons more than the Hiroshima bomb) and survived.

The ship's highly radioactive hull was tested at Pearl Harbor and San Francisco. On 29 January 1951, the Independence was scuttled near the Farallon Islands off the coast of California , by packing two torpedoes in its hull.