‘Deepest wreck dive’ reaches US WWII ship off Samar Published April 4, 2021 6:00pm This handout photograph taken on March 31, 2021 and released on April 3, 2021 by Caladan Oceanic shows the main wreckage of the USS Johnston (DD-557), a US Navy Fletcher-class destroyer that sank during the Battle of Samar in World War II, resting on the ocean floor off Samar Island in the Philippines at a depth of nearly 6,500 meters, the deepest shipwreck ever recorded. Handout/AFP A US navy destroyer sunk during World War II and lying nearly 6,500 meters below sea level off the Philippines has been reached in the world's deepest shipwreck dive, an American exploration team said.