‘Dancing mouse’ US WWII warship found years after being sunken by Imperial Japanese Navy

The US Navy ship USS Edsall, endearingly referred to as the ‘dancing mouse’, which was sunken during World War II, was only now discovered in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Australia, CNN reported on Sunday.

The ship was downed after an intensive battle with the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1942 while under the command of Lt. Joshua Nix. Accounts report that a Japanese carrier-based plane had spotted the ship 200 miles south-southeast of Christmas Island - only 16 miles from Japanese forces. 

The close proximity to Japanese forces infuriated Japanese Vice Adm. Chuichi Nagumo, resulting in him instructing Japanese forces to attack the vessel, according to a Naval History and Heritage Command account by director Samuel Cox.

Going down fighting

“Nix’s position was hopeless from the moment Edsall was sighted,” Cox wrote.

Despite the hopelessness of the battle, Nix reportedly stood firm and the ship was not lost without a fight. “As a last gesture of defiance, like the famous cartoon of the little mouse flipping the bird at a huge screaming eagle, Lieutenant Nix chose to make a fight of it,” Cox wrote.

“Joshua Nix and his crew fought valiantly, evading 1,400 shells from Japanese battleships and cruisers before being attacked by 26 carrier dive bombers, taking only one fatal hit,” US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy said Monday while announcing the ship’s discovery. 

Despite Nix’s skill, the US destroyer’s 4-inch guns, constructed in the 1920s, stood no chance against the Japanese fleets carrying 500 lb bombs. Dozens of dive bombers were used to strike the ship, one securing the vessel’s watery fate.

“With fires raging and the ship settling and losing way, Lieutenant Nix pointed the bow of Edsall at the Japanese surface ships in his last act of defiance” and ordered the ship abandoned, Cox wrote.

The long-sunken ship was found thanks to the advanced hydrographic survey capabilities aboard the naval support ship MV Stoker, Australia’s chief of navy, Vice Adm. Mark Hammond, said.

The ship went down with 185 US Navy personnel and 31 US Army Air Force pilots aboard, US Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, said on Monday. Most perished but some were taken prisoner by the Japanese forces. 

After the war concluded, six headless bodies of crewmen were found buried in Indonesia. An additional five bodies were found but could not be identified, although it is reportedly believed they belonged to the pilots aboard the ship.