After over 80 years underwater off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian Navy has finally confirmed the location of the Vital de Oliveira, a Brazilian troop transport ship sunk by Nazi Germany. The shipwreck was first discovered in 2011 by brothers Jose Luíz and Everaldo Popermeyer Meriguete. Still, its identity wasn't confirmed until now, despite the BrazillianNavy having cast doubt on the find as recently as July told Brazil’s O Globo newspaper.

The Brazilian Navy has officially verified the brothers' 2011 discovery, confirming the exact location of the Vital de Oliveira wreck using sonar imaging during a recent scientific expedition on January 16.

CNN attempted to contact Domingos Afonso Jorio, one of the divers involved in helping the two brothers locate the wreck but did not receive a response. Meanwhile, Brazilian documentary filmmaker Rodolfo Silot, who had documented the initial discovery, told CNN via email that they "have been trying to tell this story for almost a decade, and no one has been interested so far."

The Vital de Oliveira was originally a civilian vessel built in 1910. Still, it was later converted into an auxiliary naval ship when Brazil joined World War II as part of the Allied forces. On June 19, 1944, just before midnight, the ship was struck by a torpedo fired by a German U-boat, hitting its stern while it was transporting supplies, sailors, and soldiers along the Brazilian coastline.

Brazil was the only South American nation to deploy troops overseas during World War II. Throughout the Battle of the Atlantic, German U-boats operated along Brazil’s shores, sinking 34 ships and causing the deaths of 1,081 people, according to naval historian Roberto Sander. He described the sinking of the Vital de Oliveira as the navy’s “most major loss” during the war. Out of the 270 individuals on board, 99 tragically lost their lives.

“More than 60 years after these events,” noted Sander in 2007, “the vast majority of Brazilian ships remain untouched at the bottom of the ocean.”

Sander suggested that the exact locations could only be verified by deploying “probes.”

In its official statement, the navy confirmed that the wreck was discovered “using multi-beam and side-scanning sonar.”

According to NOAA, both techniques use fan-shaped arrays of sound waves to examine the seafloor, and they are commonly used together in underwater archaeology to generate detailed images of ocean wrecks.

The navy released a side-scanning sonar image showing the unmistakable outline of the Vital de Oliveira. Interestingly, the research vessel that confirmed the wreck's location shares the same name, "Vital de Oliveira".