Into the Deep: How Secrets of a Pearl Harbor Shipwreck Were Discovered After 75 Years
The U.S.S. Arizona was among the four U.S. Navy battleships sunk during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese warplanes on December 7, 1941 – an act that prompted the United States to enter World War II.
The 608-foot-long Pennsylvania class "super-dreadnought" battleship was the only one not to be raised from the depths. Since then it has become one of the most studied shipwrecks in the world.
As Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe joined President Obama at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument to honor those slain in the attack, a team of divers and photographers were making history 40 feet below the waves lapping the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
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While the U.S.S. Arizona was first mapped in the 1980s and its condition and lifespan analyzed in the 2000s, exploration of the battleship's interiors have been limited by the availability of required technology, until now.
The team comprising of National Park Service (NPS) archaeologists and National Geographic photographers documented portions of the Arizona for the first time using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named "11th Hour."
Using the ROV, they were able to explore the interiors of the sunken battleship and in doing so discovered artifacts and pieces of World War II history.
Gun turrets, writing desks, and items of clothing belonging to sailors posted on the ship were among the historical items revealed by the mission. One of the most memorable finds, according to one of the divers, was a jacket hanging in an officers' stateroom. It hadn't fallen to the ground as expected and still stood on the hanger.
Brett Seymour, deputy chief and photographer of the NPS's Submerged Resources Center (SRC), also spoke about the challenges of navigating the ROV in the turbid waters at the location.
"It's utter blackness down there. You can see only a few inches to a foot in front of you, and only straight ahead. Then, all of a sudden, these forms and shapes would appear on the screen. We were all straining to see, trying to make sense of what they were. Is that a desk in the sediment? Or something else manmade? When you find these artifacts — these pieces of history — you have to pause and try to process them," he told National Geographic.
The next step of the research team is to go even deeper and discover the secrets held below the third deck of the U.S.S. Arizona shipwreck. Whenever that happens, they will do so with the aim of upholding NPS's mission statement: "Protect, preserve, and interpret" the Arizona and tell its story without impairing it for future generations.
