They found a US Navy ship that was destroyed during the Second World War

A private diving team located off the coast of Maine the last US Navy ship that sank after the attack of a German submarine during the Second World War.

The wreck of the USS Eagle PE-56 of April 23, 1945 was originally attributed to the explosion of a boiler. However, the Navy determined in 2001 that it sank as a result of the attack on a German submarine.

The precise location of the patrol boat had remained mysterious until now.

Garry Kozak, a specialist in underwater research, announced this week that diver Ryan King of Brentwood, New Hampshire, had used his sonar data to locate the submerged vessel at a depth of about 90 meters (300 feet) in June 2018.

King's team, who later began working with the Smithsonian Channel, thoroughly explored the ship on the seabed, 5 miles off the coast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

"With bridge guns, there was no doubt about what it was," said Paul Lawton, a Mbadachusetts attorney whose investigation helped convince the Navy that the ship had sunk.

The patrol boat was equipped with deep bombs and explosives used to fight enemy submarines. But at the time of the attack, he was towing a training target for bombers from a Naval Air Station in Brunswick near the site.

Only 13 of the 62 crew members survived. They were rescued by a naval destroyer who sailed in the area.