Long languishing in the dark depths of the Pacific Ocean, the sunken aircraft carrier USS Yorktown has held secrets for 83 years.

Now, human eyes have finally peered deep inside the doomed vessel, revealing a massive wall mural that is still intact despite the Yorktown being sunk in war in 1942.

The discovery was made Saturday, April 19, when NOAA Ocean Exploration sent a remotely operated camera into the massive wreck’s midships elevator — more than 3 miles below the surface.

Inside the hangar, covering an entire wall, is a 42-foot-by-12-foot mural known only by reputation, due to a lack of historical documentation.

“This is the first time we’re seeing this whole image. This is history in the making,” one historian said as the mural came into view. “That is amazing.”

“I am absolutely flabbergasted by the state of preservation of this,” another researcher said.

The painting is titled “A Chart of the Cruises of the USS Yorktown” and shows the global reach of the ship’s activities from the Atlantic to the Western Pacific, NOAA says.

Mirror images of the Yorktown appear in the mural’s lower corners, with its floodlights to the sky and its hull lapped by waves.

A compass rose was also found at the bottom center of the mural, surrounded by seahorses, along with a border decorated with aircraft propellers.

Historians believe the mural was painted by a member of the crew, but no signature was found by the camera.

“Imagine the last people that saw this mural would have been the ones that were abandoning ship at the time, or were there to salvage her before she went under,” one researcher noted.

A Japanese torpedo

USS Yorktown was 809 feet long, carrying about 2,200 personnel, and its demise is the stuff of legend.

The ship famously stayed afloat after multiple bombs were dropped on it by Japanese aircraft, but was too weak to withstand a submarine torpedo about 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu.

“On June 6, 1942, on the final days of the Battle of Midway, Japanese carrier bombers successfully struck Yorktown with three bombs. Despite being hit, Yorktown was able to recover and continue to launch aircraft,” NOAA says.

“A short time later, several Japanese torpedo bombers delivered two torpedo hits along the ship’s port side, and the resultant loss of steam pressure left Yorktown dead in the water, (with a) jammed rudder and no power for the pumps to control the flooding.”

The ship was listing badly when the crew abandoned it, leaving only volunteers aboard to help tow it back to Pearl Harbor, historians say. The salvage crew immediately began dumping things over the side to keep the ship afloat, including aircraft.

“While en route, Japanese submarine I-168 struck Yorktown twice on the starboard side at the turn of the bilge, causing the carrier to capsize and sink on the morning of June 7, 1942,” officials say.

The wreck was discovered in 1998 by a U.S. Navy and National Geographic expedition, and NOAA is revisiting the site with specific goals, including investigating reports that some aircraft might still be in the hangar.

Among the biggest surprises for researchers is the state of preservation, with archaeologists noting there had been little change in the wreck since 1998.

It is today home to bioluminescent sea creatures and at least one unknown species of jellyfish seen hovering over the flight deck, officials said.

Shipwreck’s ‘human side’

At 3.1 miles below the surface, the mural may be among the world’s deepest — and toughest to visit — work of art.

NOAA Ocean Exploration found it as part of a 28-day expedition to explore and map deep water regions of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, “the largest contiguous fully protected conservation area under the U.S. flag” at 582,578 square miles.

There are gaps in the historical record of the Yorktown, and the expedition had a series of goals, including finding the mural and investigating reports “of possible aircraft debris” in Yorktown’s hangar.

The mural is considered important because it brings to life “the human side” of the famous wreck, historians say.

“Its motifs showcase the pride that Yorktown’s sailors had for their ship, the global scale of Yorktown’s activities, and the strategic role that the ship played in defending the United States,” NOAA said in a news release.

Historians noted similar murals could be found on other Navy ships from World War II, all of them serving as a pictorial history of each vessel’s adventures and a source of pride for the crew.

In the case of the Yorktown, “this is the first time living people are seeing the whole image,” one historian noted during the dive. The interior was not explored in 1998 or during a 2023 visit by the Ocean Exploration Trust, officials said.

How long the painting will last remains unclear.

Despite being well preserved, dribbles of rust were seen atop multiple sections of the painting, due to microbes feeding off the iron, experts say.

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