Gulf camera reveals site of WWII sinking of SS Robert E. Lee, German U-boat The German U-boat fired upon the American steamboat as it approached the mouth of the Mississippi

SS Robert E. Lee Top deck. On July 30th, 1942 at 10:30 PM, a torpedo from U-166 hit the vessel, which took about 15 minutes to sink. One officer, nine crewman, and fifteen passengers died as the vessel went down. less SS Robert E. Lee Top deck. On July 30th, 1942 at 10:30 PM, a torpedo from U-166 hit the vessel, which took about 15 minutes to sink. One officer, nine crewman, and fifteen passengers died as the vessel went ... more Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust Image 1 of / 101 Caption Close Gulf camera reveals site of WWII sinking of SS Robert E. Lee, German U-boat 1 / 101 Back to Gallery

Spectacular footage detailing World War II wrecks thousands of feet down in the Gulf of Mexico has been released by scientists doing a months-long deep sea expedition in the area.

Their ship, Exploration Vessel Nautilus, is loaded with experts from around the world, as a team lead by Penn State University checks the Gulf for damage from the BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill in 2010.

Scientists control two remote operated submersible vehicles equipped with cameras and sample collection tools which are used to scour the murky bottom. Real-time video feeds pump out their every move on the web.

Over this past weekend, amazing footage of two of the Gulf's most famous wrecks has been beamed back. New high definition images of the the SS Robert E. Lee and the German U-boat that sunk it in 1942 have been collected by the crew.

The stricken vessels lie almost 5,000 feet deep and serve as silent grave sites for the souls who lost their lives as they went down.

SS Robert E. Lee was carrying survivors from sister ships torpedoed in the Gulf, from Trinidad to New Orleans. On the June 30,1942, as it reached just 25 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River, a German torpedo hit.

According to historical accounts, a lookout spotted the torpedo coming in and alerted the steamer's escort, the American submarine chaser USS PC-566. The ship immediately began dropping depth charges.

The German U-boat, U-166, which launched the attack, was sunk with no survivors. Its wreck cannot be disturbed, now protected as a war grave for the 52 crew lost.

On board the SS Robert E. Lee, lifeboats were scrambled and all but 15 of the 283 passengers and crew on board survived. They had just 15 minutes to get off before the boat disappeared under the waves.

The Nautilus' ambitious deep sea expedition launched last month and is partly funded by BP oil spill reparations. It has given web viewers a unique look at life at the bottom of the Gulf.

After starting with corals and moving on to rare sea life like the deep sea vampire squid and the bright blue siphonophore, efforts are now focused on investigating the area's rich military history.

"I didn't know World War II was fought in our backyard," said Dr. Robert Ballard, who leads the trip. Ballard is among the world's most accomplished and well known deep-sea explorers, credited with the 1985 discovery of the wreck of RMS Titanic.

"Many souls were lost on these wrecks and others, but now they are teeming with corals and undersea creatures. It's the amazing tapestry of life," Ballard said via email from on board the Nautilus.

Photos show guns once used to protect the ship at the height of battle, now covered in majestic and colorful anemonies - a stark contrast to the violence of war.

The expedition team will spend the week putting together detailed high resolution mapping of the wrecks using the latest in undersea technology.

From the SS Robert E. Lee and U-166 they will move onto the Gulf Penn, a second world war tanker taken down by a U-boat in May 1942. They will then begin a dive on the SS Alcoa Puritan, a cargo ship torpedoed and sunk the same month.

In total, 200 explorers will take part in the 120-day expedition which culminates in the fall with a tour of Kick 'em Jenny, the most active and dangerous submarine volcano in the Caribbean, just off the coast of Grenada.

A close up look of world's second largest coral reef, the Belize/Honduras Mesoamerican reef is also included, all of it streamed back to viewers watching at home.

"This is a voyage of discovery everyone can make," said Dr. Ballard in the expedition launch release.

You can follow the Nautilus team live at Nautiluslive.org and via their Facebook page.