An expedition by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has found a rare 1941 Ford Super Deluxe Woody among the wreckage of the USS Yorktown, an aircraft carrier sunk in World War II. The car was resting about 5,200 meters deep in the Pacific Ocean, near the vessel’s port hangar.
The discovery was made on April 19, 2025 by the ROV Deep Discoverer, a submersible operated from NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer ship, which was inspecting the hull of the aircraft carrier. Sam Cuellar, the expedition’s coordinator, was watching the live footage as two round, bright dots flashed in the darkness on the opposite side of the ship. As the cameras got closer, the contours of the car appeared, including the characteristic white stripe tires, and the realization came: there was a car in the background.
Even after 83 years of submergen, the vehicle remains recognizable: the split windshield follows exactly where Ford installed it, and the chrome bumpers remain in place. The wooden frames that have christened the nickname “Woody” are still visible, although the material has rotted over time.
The very existence of the car helps explain its rarity. Ford began producing the Woody in 1929, but stopped manufacturing all civilian models in early 1942 by converting its lines to war production.
The most accepted hypothesis is that the vehicle belonged to the Pearl Harbor naval shipyard and was taken aboard during repairs made at Yorktown after the Battle of the Coral Sea, in early May 1942. A handmade plaque with the partial inscription “SHIP SERVICE ___ NAVY” reinforces the connection with the U.S. Navy, indicating that the car was owned by the shipyard, and not by any crew member. Still, there is no confirmation on how the car ended up on the aircraft carrier.
The repairs lasted only three days, and the ship rushed back to sea, presumably before anyone could pull out the Woody. On June 7, 1942, the USS Yorktown was sunk by torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-168, during the Battle of Midway, a naval confrontation considered a turning point of the war in the Pacific. The Ford descended along with the vessel and remained hidden in the depths of the ocean for more than eight decades, far from the reach of any rescue attempt.
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