The U.S. Embassy in Indonesia is promoting bilateral cooperation between the two countries to preserve the underwater legacy of the heavy cruiser USS Houston, which sank in Banten Bay during World War II.

Although he owned a presidential yacht, then-US President Franklin D. Roosevelt sailed this warship extensively in the late 1930s before it sank during the Battle of Sunda Strait.

The USS Houston is currently 20 meters underwater in Banten Bay next to the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth.

These two ships were part of the Allied fleet – the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) – sent to counter Japanese expansion in the Pacific and fight for control of what was then the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia.

The Houston was attacked by torpedoes from the Japanese destroyer Fubuki and subsequently blockaded by a destroyer squadron before sinking on March 1, 1942.

Of the more than 1,000 crew members of the Houston, 367 managed to swim to the coast of Banten, but were soon captured by Japanese troops and used as forced laborers. About 300 crew members made it home after the war, but the rest lie in watery graves.