USS Yorktown (CV-5)—an aircraft carrier commissioned in September 1937 and sunk in October 1942—was equipped with 24 Oerlikon 20mm guns, 60 lb protective decks, and 90 aircraft. And, as it turns out, it also held one “1940-41 Ford Super Deluxe ‘Woody’ in black.”

Six months after Pearl Harbor (June 1942), the U.S. Navy faced off against the Japanese fleet again at the Battle of Midway. The Japanese fleet targeted U.S. carriers because it had been unable to damage them during Pearl Harbor. But it only managed to sink one carrier and one destroyer. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy sank four Japanese carriers.

A crew researching an iconic US Navy aircraft carrier that sunk during World War II just discovered a baffling artifact inside: a Ford convertible that would've been nearly new when the USS Yorktown was torpedoed in June 1942.