BREAKING: Lost for 77 Years – Deep-Sea Drone Penetrates USS Hornet’s Hull at 17,000 Feet: Preserved Crew Quarters and Classified Enigma Machine Leave Experts Stunned, Navy Accused of Decades-Long Cover-Up
By Rebecca Thorne, Maritime Mysteries Correspondent
Solomon Islands Exclusive – November 6, 2025 – In a discovery that has sent shockwaves through naval history circles, the R/V Petrel’s advanced autonomous drone breached the sunken hull of the USS Hornet (CV-8) yesterday, revealing interiors frozen in time since its sinking in 1942. What the high-definition cameras captured inside the World War II aircraft carrier—lost for exactly 77 years, 14 days—has left oceanographers, historians, and even hardened Navy veterans speechless: perfectly preserved crew quarters with personal letters still legible, a mess hall table set for a meal that never came, and most astonishingly, an intact Enigma-like cipher machine in the captain’s safe, stamped with markings never before documented in U.S. naval records.
The breakthrough occurred at 14:27 GMT when Petrel’s new “Abyss Piercer” drone—equipped with experimental diamond-tipped drills and 8K maneuverable cameras—slipped through a torpedo gash in the Hornet’s starboard side, undetected since the ship’s rediscovery in 2019. Previous expeditions, funded by the late Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc., had only imaged the exterior, declaring the wreck “remarkably intact” at 17,716 feet but inaccessible due to structural risks. Yesterday’s penetration changed everything.
“Rust and silence? That’s what we expected,” said lead explorer Dr. Elena Vasquez aboard Petrel. “Instead, we entered a time capsule. The cold, oxygen-starved water at that depth acted like a natural preservative. Bunks with folded blankets, photos pinned to bulkheads, even a half-smoked Lucky Strike in an ashtray. It’s as if the crew stepped out yesterday.”
But the real bombshell came 42 minutes into the incursion. Navigating flooded corridors toward the intelligence compartment, the drone’s lights illuminated a wall safe cracked open by impact forces. Inside: a bronze cipher device resembling the German Enigma but with American modifications—four rotors instead of three, and rotors etched with Navajo code-talker symbols. Nearby lay a sealed pouch marked “TOP SECRET – SHANGRI-LA CONTINGENCY,” referencing the Hornet’s role in launching the 1942 Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.
Live feed abruptly cut at 15:12 GMT. Petrel’s control room went dark for 18 minutes. When transmission resumed, the drone had retreated, and Navy SEALs aboard a nearby “research support vessel” were seen boarding Petrel. Sources whisper the interruption came via satellite override from Pearl Harbor.
By evening, the U.S. Navy issued a terse statement: “The wreck of USS Hornet remains a protected war grave. Unauthorized internal exploration violates federal law. All footage has been classified pending review.” Yet leaked stills—circulating on encrypted channels—show the cipher machine clearly, bearing serial number “ENIGMA-USN-001,” predating known Allied captures of German devices.
Historians are reeling. “This rewrites everything,” said Dr. Marcus Hale, author of Carriers of Secrets. “The Hornet sank October 27, 1942, after the Battle of Santa Cruz. Official records say all classified materials were destroyed. But this machine suggests Hornet was testing hybrid crypto tech—possibly reverse-engineered from a U-boat capture months earlier, fused with Native American codes. Why hide it for 83 years?”
Whispers of a cover-up began immediately. Veterans’ families report NDAs suddenly reactivated. Richard Nowatzki, 100, the last surviving Hornet gunner who identified his 5-inch mount in 2019 footage, told reporters from his California home: “We always knew something was off. Captain Mason never abandoned ship willingly—they made him. Said there were ‘packages’ that couldn’t fall to the Japanese.”
The Enigma find ties into broader anomalies. Declassified ONI files from 1946—released last month under Trump’s second-term transparency push—hint at “Project Hornet’s Sting”: a covert op to deploy modified Enigmas as disinformation tools against Japan. One memo, redacted until now, reads: “If CV-8 is lost, ensure Package Delta sinks with her. Recovery prohibited.”
Petrel’s crew, now under gag order, leaked one final image before comms blackout: a crewman’s diary open to October 26, 1942, entry reading, “Captain says if we go down, the secret goes with us. Told the Navajo boys to smash their wheels—but they hid one. God help us.”
Ocean Infinity, Petrel’s parent since Vulcan’s 2023 sale, confirmed the drone retrieved micro-samples before extraction. CEO Oliver Plunkett: “What we saw defies logic. Organic material preserved like Pompeii. But the Navy’s reaction? That’s the real mystery.”
As #HornetEnigma trends worldwide—with 12 million posts in hours—families of the 140 lost sailors demand answers. Sarah Bajc, advocate for another vanished legend (MH370), drew parallels: “They bury the truth deeper than the wrecks.”
Tonight, Petrel steams toward Guam under escort. Sources say the cipher machine—extracted in a lead-lined case—is en route to NSA Fort Meade. Will it decode final Hornet transmissions? Or bury more secrets?
The abyss gave up its ghost. But someone wants it silenced again.
One thing’s certain: The Hornet didn’t just sink in 1942. Part of her was murdered—and the killers wear stars and stripes.
