U.S. Navy Wreckage from WWII Discovered Off Coast of Alaska
Popular Mechanics reports wreckage from a U.S. Navy destroyer badly damaged by a sea mine was discovered last month by a government-funded scientific team.
USS Abner Read nearly sank during the Aleutians campaign in World War II, as US and Allied forces fought to eject Japanese troops occupying the remote islands of Attu and Kiska.
The destroyer was towed, repaired and continued to serve in the Pacific for the remainder of the war, but the stern and those who were berthed or stationed there were lost to the sea.
In the early months of America’s participation in World War II, Imperial Japanese forces occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian islands chain. The operation was meant to distract the Americans from the central and south Pacific theaters but was not part of a larger invasion of Alaska.
Built in the naval shipyards of San Francisco, the USS Abner Read joined the Pacific Fleet and was sent to participate in the Aleutians campaign.
On the night of August 8th, 1943 while participating in an anti-submarine operation off Kiska, Read struck a sea mine at the stern of the ship.
The rear 75 feet of the 376 foot long ship was blown off, including rudder and propellers. The section quickly sank, and only herculean damage control efforts saved the rest of the ship and crew.
Seventy one men were killed in the mine attack.
Damaged stern USS Abner Read
On July 17th, 2018 a team funded by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration rediscovered the stern section in 290 feet of water, still off the coast of Kiska. The team consisted of scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and the University of Delaware.
The team discovered the wreckage after a multibeam sonar on the research ship Norseman II identified a “promising target.” A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was sent to the target location to investigate.
The team was quickly convinced they had found the stern of the Abner Read. Expedition leader Eric Terrill later said, “We could clearly see the broken stern, the gun and rudder control, all consistent with the historical documents.”
The wreckage qualifies for U.S. government protection per the Federal government’s Sunken Military Act. The act states that the “Navy’s sunken military craft remain property of the U.S. regardless of their location or the passage of time and may not be disturbed without the permission from the U.S. Navy.”
This is in order to protect the graves, unexploded ordnance, or hazardous materials within the wreckage.
As for USS Abner Read, it was towed back to Bremerton, Washington where a new stern was attached. The ship rejoined the fleet but was sunk in 1944 off the island of Samar, the victim of a Japanese bomber attack.
The ship’s stern section is now a final resting place, a tomb for the 71.
Category: Navy
Good post AW1Ed. Saw this on the Bing Headlines the other night, but couldn’t get it to open. This machine has some pretty stiff Rat Trap/Malware/BitDefender perimeter defence on it that blocks some stuff I may want to check into. Interesting that they rebuilt the ship and put Her back into service in what, about a year? Be interesting to follow up on Her other battle action, and the bombing that took her out. Keep up the good work! jc
Actually they put her back is service in a little over two months. She went into dry dock in late Oct and was ready for sea in December. Those yardbirds must have been working 12 hour shifts, seven days a week. The yard had ample advanced notice of the repair and may have prefabbed and outfitted a new stern section prior to her arrival. Ship repair is very different from shipbuilding and US repair yards got very good at it during WWII. I can think of at least one DD that had her complete bow section attached in one piece.
Amazing. Had just ASS U MEed that it took a year since there were no months shown, just the year. I’d say they worked 36 hour days, nine days a week to get that done. GF is a former design engineer in the shipping/ power plant and telephone outside plant design. She is of the opinion that they couldn’t even get started on that type of repair in 2 months now a days, much less design, fabricate, put it all together, sea trial, and return to combat. Checked out the other link from NEC338x added a whole lot the the overall visual. I have fixed and help fix a bunch of tore up stuff in my days here, but this is just mind blowing. You read of the work done during WWII on repairs, but sometimes it just doesn’t sink in. Kuddos to the crews that saved her, brought her back,and fixed her to fight again. Peace be to the 93 men and to their families, lost to action. Thanks for the add on RnR.
Thanks for this post AW1Ed. God rest them all well.
As 5th/77thFA noted above, it has always been remarkable and amazing to to me how ships then were repaired and refitted for sea after such damage and damage far worse. Done so in what today would be considered record breaking time. But then, in WWII everyone was for the war effort. They did not have to contend with contractor debates, lobbyists and their legal teams. Everyone jumped into action and worked their asses off to get whatever was needed where it needed to be.
Try putting an Arleigh Burke class destroyer back in service without 75 feet of its stern in a years time now. Hell even 3 or 4 years.
In short, the entirety of the WWII war effort is a multi volume work in itself.
May this bring what closure and relief it can to the families and friends of those 71 souls.
Rest Easy, Gentlemen. We have you watch.
At least the wreckage was located. It is a reminder that serving on the high seas is always dangerous, even when we aren’t at war.
Rest in Peace, those who went down with the stern.
Hmmmmm…..my father-in-law was in that engagement as an artillery officer.
errrrr — on the Japanese side. He was relocated from Attu to Kiska, then evacuated before the US attacked.
Love the after-action damage control plate over at USNI.
https://news.usni.org/2018/08/16/75-years-later-search-finds-ships-stern-ripped-away-mine-wwiis-aleutians-campaign
Thanks for this link, poured over it, added a whole lot. This is just another example of Team TAH, I had no clue, not being a sailor, that this site was there. Not being a computer geek, I am being drug, kicking and screaming in the 21th century, bit by bit.
Having gone ashore on Kiska a couple of times over the last 50 years, I probably sailed quite close to the discovery site.
God Rest those sailors.
RIP Brothers. At least they are together.
The repairs to that amount of damage also shows the effort the US Navy has put into damage control, and watertight compartments.
The Navy Brass took a lot of notes after WWI and started emphasizing not just training of ship’s company, but of adding as many bulkheads and water tight doors as possible to prevent flooding. Crews not only trained to keep every hatch dogged during combat or potential heavy weather, but learned fire fighting, using pumps to clear flooded areas where possible, and how to patch holes and seal off damaged areas with whatever is to hand.
The USS Franklin was nearly destroyed in action with the Japanese Imperial Navy in 1944 but was eventually sent back to Pearl Harbor for emergency repairs.
She was an Essex Class Carrier and was the most severely damaged of that class through the entire WWII Pacific Campaign against the Japanese.
Two semi armor piercing bombs on March 19, 1945 caused severe damage and killed 724 with 265 wounded.
The ship was nearly destroyed but through the hard work, bravery and tenacity of the remaining 106 officers and 604 enlisted men stopped the fires leaving her with a 17 degree list. She was taken under tow by the USS Pittsburgh and eventually was able to make 14 knots and returned to Brooklyn for repair and refit. She was reclassified in 1959 and was eventually decommissioned and was sold for scrap in 1964.
The valor and dogged determination by all her crew stand as a testament to the toxic masculinity of all the men of WWII that saved this country from being overrun by hordes of screaming Japanese soldiers and Nazis on the East Coast.
Chaplain, Lt. Cmdr. Joseph T. O’Callahan, S. J., USNR, was awarded the MOH for his action in saving the USS Franklin and rescued many American Sailors from certain death by leading firefighting parties to wet down ammunition lockers and stores so they would not explode.
Another day that Uncommon Valor was a common virtue on the USS Franklin and in the US Navy and the entire US Military as a whole…..
https://www.navysite.de/cv/cv13.htm
The USS John F. Kennedy is attempting to land her as a museum ship in Rhode Island.
Judging from the size of the state, the ship will become the second largest city….
Check it out.
https://www.ussjfkri.org/current-situation-next-steps/
The wreckage qualifies for U.S. government protection per the Federal government s Sunken Military Act. The act states that the Navy’s sunken military craft remain property of the U.S. regardless of their location or the passage of time and may not be disturbed without the permission from the U.S. Navy. This is in order to protect the graves, unexploded ordnance, or hazardous materials within the wreckage.
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