For more than eight decades, the location of a Japanese World War II Hellship remained unknown.
Thousands of families knew what happened to their loved ones, but they did not know exactly where the ship had disappeared.
In 2026, that changed.
Josh Gates and an international research team helped locate the wreck of the Hōfuku Maru, a Japanese prison transport ship that sank in the Philippines in 1944 with more than 1,000 Allied prisoners of war aboard.
The discovery became one of the most significant investigations featured on Expedition Unknown.
What Was the Hōfuku Maru?
During World War II, Japan converted more than 130 cargo ships and passenger vessels into prison transports.
Allied prisoners were packed into these ships under extremely harsh conditions.
Because the ships were not clearly marked as carrying prisoners, Allied forces sometimes attacked them without knowing who was aboard.
These vessels became known as Hellships.
Discovery says more than 125,000 Allied prisoners were transported on Hellships during the war, with an estimated 20,000 dying onboard.
The Hōfuku Maru became one of the most tragic examples.
How Did the Ship Disappear?
On September 21, 1944, the Hōfuku Maru was part of a Japanese convoy near the Philippines.
Allied aircraft attacked the convoy.
A torpedo struck the Hōfuku Maru, causing the vessel to break apart and sink in less than three minutes.
Up to 1,000 British and Dutch prisoners were still trapped inside the ship.
The exact location of the wreck was then lost in the confusion of war.
For more than 80 years, researchers had only incomplete records and conflicting information about where the ship went down.
The Clue That Changed Everything
The breakthrough came from researchers at the Hellships Memorial Foundation.
Researcher John Duresky uncovered previously overlooked documents in American and Japanese military archives.
The Japanese records provided important information about the convoy and the location of the attack.
According to Discovery, those documents placed the sinking more than 30 miles away from where researchers had previously believed the ship was located.
That new information gave the search team a completely different area to investigate.
Josh Gates Joins the Search
Josh Gates partnered with the Hellships Memorial Foundation for the expedition.
The team also included underwater imaging specialist Evan Kovacs and maritime archaeologist Dr. Calvin Mires of Marine Imaging Technologies.
Using the newly identified search area, the team deployed sonar to look for an unidentified wreck.
Eventually, sonar revealed something promising.
There was an uncharted wreck approximately 160 feet underwater off the coast of Zambales province on Luzon, Philippines.
But finding a wreck was only the beginning.
The team still had to prove what it was.
How They Confirmed It Was the Hōfuku Maru
The researchers conducted several deep water dives.
They documented the wreck using advanced underwater imaging and photogrammetry.
Then they compared the physical evidence with historical information about the Hōfuku Maru.
The size of the wreck matched.
The positions of the masts matched.
The cargo holds matched.
Most importantly, the wreck was broken into two major sections.
That matched historical descriptions of how the Hōfuku Maru was destroyed by the torpedo attack.
The evidence was strong enough for the researchers to identify the wreck as the lost Hellship.
Human Remains Were Found
The discovery was also deeply emotional.
The team encountered human remains among the wreckage.
Because the site is a wartime grave, the investigation was conducted with respect for those who died there.
The exact location of the wreck has not been publicly released.
The purpose of the expedition was not to recover treasure.
It was to identify a forgotten ship and help restore a missing part of the historical record.
Why This Discovery Matters
The Hōfuku Maru was not simply another shipwreck.
It represented the final resting place of more than 1,000 Allied prisoners whose stories had remained connected to an unidentified location for decades.
Finding the wreck gives historians another physical site through which the Hellship story can be remembered and documented.
For the families connected to those prisoners, knowing where the ship rests can also provide a sense of closure.
The Discovery on Expedition Unknown
The discovery became the opening story of Expedition Unknown Season 17.
Discovery's official episode guide lists the first episode as Hunt for WWII Hellships, followed by Finding WWII's Lost Prisoners, documenting the investigation and discovery.
The series also follows another Hellship investigation involving the Ōryoku Maru and the US government's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
That makes the 2026 season particularly focused on bringing forgotten World War II stories back into public attention.
Final Thoughts
Josh Gates did not discover the Hōfuku Maru alone.
It was the result of years of archival research, historical investigation, sonar searching, underwater diving and detailed wreck analysis by a larger team.
But Gates and Expedition Unknown helped bring the discovery to a global television audience.
After more than 80 years, the Hōfuku Maru is no longer a missing ship on the map.
It has been identified.
And beneath the waters of the Philippines lies a solemn reminder of one of the darkest chapters of World War II.
The real treasure was not gold. It was finally finding where more than 1,000 lost prisoners had been waiting to be remembered.
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