The vessel, one of the Allies’ lesser known combatants against the German-Japanese pact, went down on November 19, 1941. Critically wounded in combat with a disguised German vessel, it took some 645 crewmen with it to the seabed.

It was the greatest single loss of Australian life in the entirety of the war, and the fractured hull of the Sydney would be the country’s largest war grave.

Yet despite its scale, the ship sunk without trace. It left many hundreds of families waiting for closure, the explanation of their loved ones’ deaths uncertain, their bodies never laid to rest.

In the decades that followed, the story began to give rise to conspiracy theories. The absent wreck and dearth of information surrounding that final battle raised cries of a cover up, and theories arose to plug the holes in history.

Was the Australian Government burying a botched rescue? Were survivors killed by the German crew? Could there have been Japanese involvement, predating the attack on Pearl Harbor and potentially skewing our understanding of the progress of the war in the east?

One question stood proud among the many posed by the historians and authors who tried to deconstruct the tale over the years. Why is the Sydney still missing?

The question, it could be argued, applies no longer. In March, famed sea explorer David Mearns found the wreck, unmistakably identified by its unique markings, preserved for 65 years. As director of The Finding Sydney Foundation, he made good on the AUS $4.1m provided by the Australian Government for the task.

Time to unravel the mystery? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Because someone from Wetherby found the Sydney first.

Eighteen months ago, the Wetherby News ran two features on a man named Tim Akers.

A marine archaeologist, Akers’ experimentation with digital photography had seen him chance upon a remarkable process.

By combining images from different parts of the light spectrum, using software he developed, he found himself able to look underground, 75ft under the Earth, to be exact – and 10,000 feet under the sea.

Processing data from satellite images – Landsat 7, NASA’s primary photographic satellite and the basis for Google Earth – he began combing the Indian Ocean from his Wetherby home.

He was looking for the Sydney, a high profile archaeological target, to give his claims some tangible credibility. And he found it.

Sceptical? Naturally, everyone is. Akers certainly won’t reveal just how his system, dubbed Merlindown, actually works.