View of the mural, “A Chart of the Cruises of the USS Yorktown,” hand-painted inside the ship’s #2 elevator shaft, seen during the Papahānaumokuākea ROV and Mapping expedition dive on April 19, 2025.

Earlier this year, NOAA dove on Yorktown’s wreck once again, this time documenting many hours (the linked video is over 10 hours) worth of high-definition footage of the wreck. Included in the usual sights of chipping paint and gun barrels pointed skyward, they also went into the center elevator shaft and got great footage of the mural! Who knew that after a half-century of some of us looking for photos of the full mural, the ultimate way it’d be discovered was simply by going to see the actual mural it in person. Well, okay, it wasn’t that simple.

You can view the full video footage on YouTube HERE.