On Oct. 26, 1942, the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier the USS Hornet was sunk during pitched fighting in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands. Strapped to the deck of the carrier was a farming tractor, converted to help move planes around the ship.

83 years later and a British tractor enthusiast is trying to organize an expedition to raise that tractor. Not the carrier, the tractor.

Tobias Wedgwood, who restores old tractors with his son and runs a YouTube channel Father and Son Tractors, learned about the surprisingly well preserved International Harvester A14 Shop Mule while reading a scientific journal. He said he felt bad for it, and threw out the idea of recovering it from the waters. The BBC first reported on Wedgwood’s effort, which was picked up by the U.S. Naval Institute. As he laid

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