(CNN) Nearly 14,000 feet below the surface of the South Pacific, a remote-controlled research craft has glimpsed the hull of an aircraft carrier, the USS Wasp, that hadn't been seen since 1942.

Word of the sighting comes a month after the Research Vessel Petrel, funded by the late Microsoft founder Paul Allen, discovered another World War II-era shipwreck, the USS Hornet, which sank not far away, off the Solomon Islands. The Petrel in recent years has discovered dozens of wrecks of ships that once flew the flags of the American, British, Japanese and Italian navies.

A Petrel crew member controls an underwater robot as it glimpses an Avenger warplane that once flew missions off the USS Wasp's deck.

The Petrel, which sits on the surface, has a crew of 10, who plot the last known locations of old warships and send robots to the depths to rediscover them.

In step with the US Navy's policy of leaving its shipwrecks untouched -- as they are sailors' hallowed graves -- the Wasp's hull will remain in the murky depths. But its rediscovery is giving new life to a heroic story of a bygone era.

A wasp that could sting more than once

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