Inspection of USS Arizona
The US Parks ran an underwater inspection survey a short while ago of the USS Arizona, to assess how the ship is holding up.
The video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0TpsfxGDdo
Not spooky, but moving. It is a wonder than anyone survived at all.
The following is some of the old B&W footage of Arizona. The first one is about 20 seconds long, showing the explosion when a Japanese bomb hit the magazines below decks and detonated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujquq7IU0uY
This is a closer look, showing a formation of Japanese planes flying in to attack the ships in Pearl Harbor. It focuses mostly on the hit on Arizona.
There is a lot of footage in the National Archives shot during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Some of it was shown to us in boot camp.
Category: Historical, Navy, War Stories
78 years and still a couple of drops of oil per minute seep from the hull. Very eerie.
We were shown some of the footage of the attack when I was in boot camp. It included some of the ships rolling over on their sides and sailors jumping into the water to get away from that, plus some of the rescue boats. Those are things that don’t get shown in the usual “remember this day” videos.
Like the people that jumped from the Twin Towers on 9/11, I cannot fathom the level of terror involved in jumping from a sinking ship into burning, oily water with massive ships like the Arizona literally blowing up around you.
http://imagesofrenewal.com/pearl-harbor/the-oil-from-the-uss-arizona-the-black-tears/
The black tears.
https://www.amazon.com/Descent-into-Darkness-Harbor-Divers-ebook/dp/B007ZDDCU0/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr3_1?keywords=diver+on+uss+Oklahoma&qid=1555343082&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr3
Incredible memoir by a diver who helped salvage the BBs right after the attack. His description of working inside the shops is some of the eeriest stuff I’ve ever read.
And his story of his time on Guadalcanal is some of the loneliest prose ever.
I think anyone who had to work in that environment faced some truly scary stuff, owing to the damage caused by the Japanese bombing.
I admit that I was truly frightened reading his descriptions of diving inside the ships. That NEVER happens to me.
Diving in complete darkness in compartments full of debris and then, horror of horrors, suddenly bumping into the lifeless bodies of our shipmates.
That’s the stuff that nightmares are made of. It took incredible courage to go into those ships time after time.
You might be interested in “Pearl Harbor: Why, How, Fleet Salvage and Final Appraisal” by Vice Admiral Homer N Wallin, USN (retired). There is a lot of details of the salvage of several ships sunk during the attack. And even after they were raised the sunken ships were dangerous. For example, hydrogen sulfide gas that could due to reactions between paper and polluted water. In low concentrations it stinks; in high concentrations it smells sweet; in lethal concentrations it can numb your sense of smell. The first fact I’d learned years ago; the other two from reading Wallin’s monograph.
^form; HS could form. oops.
And see https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/library/online-reading-room/war-and-conflict/wwii/pearl-harbor/pearlharborwallin/d767_92_w3.pdf for Wallin.
I confess I skipped the historical background & basically got right into the salvage. If you’ve read about the salvage of the SS Normandie or the more recent salvage of the Concordia and were interested, then this will probably interest you.
Excellent Arizona video- thanks, Ex.
You’re welcome, AW1Ed.
Where did you dig up this video which I never saw before Ex.WOW. Anyone out there ever see the USS Franklin (ship that couldn’t be sunk)when it was tied up at the NOB D&S piers. We were tied up across from the Franklin one time when there wasn’t any room for us on one of our regular piers where we usually berthed which was on the other side of the pier 4 geedunk stand. This was around 1964 or 65. Word had it that it was sold for scrap.
The Video Ray (underwater camera) was on YouTube and came up first when I looked for stuff on Arizona. One B&W video is from the National Archives and the other is some research guys doing an analysis of the sequence of events.
“Lest we forget.” Thanks for the posting and all the linkys Ex-PH2 and everyone else.
(dumbass me put the comment on the wrong thread previously. I will punish myself by drinking cheap whiskey)
NPS have environmental concerns about the fuel/oil still in the Arizona’s hull.
I’m not sure but I think they also found some one or two man subs somewhere around there .
That would be the mini-sub found in West Loch.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-dec-07-la-sci-minisub7-2009dec07-story.html