'Too tough to die' shipwreck discovered in Pacific

[rangerrebew]

'Too tough to die' shipwreck discovered in Pacific

The U.S.S. Nevada survived Pearl Harbor, Normandy, Okinawa, and two nuclear tests—but the recent discovery of its wreckage raises new questions about what ultimately brought it down.
 
By Kristin Romey

PUBLISHED May 11, 2020

Even as world wars go, the U.S.S. Nevada was a resilient ship: It was the only battleship to get underway during the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, surviving bombs and torpedoes before the burning vessel was beached and later repaired. It trained its guns on German positions at Normandy on D-Day, and went on to support the invasions of Okinawa and Iwo Jima. At the end of the war, U.S.S. Nevada was selected as the central target for the first nuclear test at Bikini Atoll, where it survived a 23-kiloton aerial detonation (the bomb missed), as well as a second underwater detonation. Finally, on July 31, 1948, following a four-day naval gunfire exercise, the toughest ship of the Second World War was deliberately sunk in the Pacific by the U.S. Navy.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/05/uss-nevada-shipwreck-discovered-pacific/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=History_20200511&rid=9C968294BD0D02EFBA451B9D18B41003

[PeteS in CA]

USS Nevada (and class mate USS Oklahoma) were the first USN BBs to use an all-or-nothing armor scheme that kept vital functions and sufficient buoyancy in a "box" with maximum armor and structural steel elsewhere. It took multiple torpedoes of a strength for which she was not designed to sink Oklahoma. And it took a bomb made from a 16" shell to sink Arizona (of the class after the Nevada class), which was armored against her own, 14", guns. USN all-or-nothing BBs were tough ships, and even more so when updated after PH.

[skeeter]

I've been fascinated since Bob Ballard and, more recently, Paul Allen's R/V Petrel began finding all of these sunken WWII era warships. What amazes me is the forces at work once the ships sinks - they leave the surface intact yet wind up in pieces on the bottom. Hyrdaulic forces just rip them apart.

There went all of those fantasies I had as a kid about re-floating famous ships after reading Clive Cussler's Raise the Titanic.

[truth_seeker]

The USS Nevada article is fascinating, as well as other articles in this edition, which is a 75 yr anniversay for WWII.

[PeteS in CA]

It took four and a half days to sink the U.S.S. Nevada. The 575-foot-long battleship, painted bright orange from its earlier role as a nuclear test target, was towed out of Pearl Harbor to sea, where a classified explosive was detonated in its hull. Then it was pummeled with shells launched from cruisers and bombs from planes during a multi-day naval exercise. Finally, on July 31, 1948, a single torpedo dropped by an American plane allegedly did what the Germans and Japanese could not: send Nevada to the bottom of the sea.
...
Based on a preliminary inspection of the footage, Delgado believes that there is evidence for a second torpedo that may have brought the U.S.S. Nevada down. “We found a whole section of the hull just blasted open, exposing the armor, but with the outer skin just peeled back and torn.” The 13.5-inch plates of nickel chromium steel battleship armor, Delgado marveled, still shone in the lights of the ROV.

The former crewman quoted in the article opined that Nevada should not have been sunk, but used as a museum. When it was sunk Nevada was probably too radioactive from the A-bomb tests. That said, one of the sad things is that none of the BBs present at Pearl Harbor was preserved. IIRC USS North Carolina, South Dakota class BBs, and two Iowa class BBs have been preserved, but only North Carolina was in commission when PH was attacked, and she was working through teething problems. USS Texas has also been preserved, but she was considered unsuitable for Pacific service until the IJN had largely been sunk.