December 4, 2020: USS Baltimore
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. Download larger version (jpg, 1.3 MB).
Scuttled in 1944 off Oahu after serving in the Spanish-American War and World War I, the iron-hulled cruiser USS Baltimore was visited in 2017 during the Deep-Sea Symphony: Exploring the Musicians Seamounts expedition to better understand how shipwrecks deteriorate over time and the habitat they provide for marine animals.
As shown here, the knife-edge bow stem of the ship was covered in brisingid sea stars and other deepwater fauna. This image won the Explorer’s Choice Photo Contest for the ‘Marine Archaeology’ category as part of our Celebrating Our Ocean Planet campaign.
From: Explorer’s Choice Photo Contest Archive.