Lost and Found: The Legacy of USS Lagarto (2009)

• 74%
• 2009
• Documentary
• History
• John Chatterton
• Ruth Kaufman
• Jamie MacLeod

In 1944, the submarine USS Lagarto left a small shipyard in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and traveled 8,000 miles to serve in the war in the Pacific. While on patrol, the sub vanished after engaging a Japanese convoy in a ferocious sea battle. For 60 years nothing further was known; families were simply told 'Lagarto overdue from patrol, presumed lost.' In 2005 a British diver stumbled upon the remains of Lagarto and her crew of 86 at the bottom of the Gulf of Thailand. Wreck divers John Chatterton & Richie Kohler, profiled in the best-seller Shadow Divers, led numerous dives to solve the mystery of the disappearance and to determine why no one escaped. Lagarto is the first sunken American WWII submarine found since the war ended.