This fruit played an unusual part in WWII ship's escape as new evidence discovered on seabed

The recently-discovered bow of the USS New Orleans has shone new light on its remarkable escape story after being hit by a Japanese torpedo and travelling backwards 1,800 miles across the Pacific during WWII.

Over the weekend the Nautilus Live expedition from the Ocean Exploration Trust located the US Navy cruisers bow in 675 meters of water in Iron Bottom Sound off the Solomon Islands.

  The bow of the USS New Orleans lies on the seafloor of Iron Bottom Sound in the Solomon Islands.Ocean Exploration Trust

On November 30, 1942, New Orleans was struck on its port side bow during the Battle of Tassafaronga, off Guadalcanal island, losing the front of the ship, and killing more than 180 sailors.

Crew members worked to close off bulkheads and prevent flooding, limping into the nearest harbour on the island of Tulagi, as sailors went into the jungle to get repair supplies - stumbling across a fruit that unexpectedly, would prove useful.

“Camouflaging their ship from air attack, the crew jury-rigged a bow of coconut logs,” a US Navy account recalls.

  The cruiser USS New Orleans is seen in dry dock in Sydney, Australia, on February 3, 1943 as crew are clearing away wreckage left after a Japanese torpedo severed its bow.U.S. Navy

With the makeshift coconut bow, the ship travelled in reverse 1,800 miles across the Pacific to Australia for sturdier repairs, according the National World War II Museum in Louisiana.

The ingenuity and resourcefulness of this ship was celebrated by awarding it 17 battle stars, tying it as the third most decorated in this kind of award in the Pacific theater.

It later continued to be a force in the war participating in battles such as Saipan and Okinawa which led to the US gaining airfields that enabled the final blows to be made on Imperial Japan.

  The USS New Orleans is seen In English waters, about June 1934.U.S. Navy

This extraordinary story was added to this week when Nautilus Live, NOAA Ocean Exploration, the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute, the University of New Hampshire and the Naval History and Heritage Command, discovered the missing piece of this ship during a 21-day Maritime Archaeology of Guadalcanal expedition of Iron Bottom Sound.

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