Warship Wrecks - Found Or Not Found?

[Fitz505]

There has been concern in the past few years, that as the ship begins to break up (hull is rusting away), there may be a major oil spill. Apparently, it's fuel bunkers were full, when it went down. Saw a program some months ago, that showed Navy divers doing an examination of the ship to determine it's condition.

Fitz

[Dowly]

Isn´t there any way to pump the tanks empty?? Or are they just too lazy to do it?

[Etienne]

It'd be a pretty simple operation for the US Navy. I don't exactly see why they don't do it...

If it was a merchant ship, the company, it's insurer and the Captain would have gotten sued fifty time over the leaking.

[Fitz505]

Pumping the bunkers empty was the option. If I recall, there is still almost 1/2 million gallons still aboard. Of course you are dealing with a government organization, so by the time they get around to doing anything, it will probably just collapse someday. Then add the fact, it is a wargrave (people are still be buried there (urns only), that probably compounds the problem as far as preservation is concerned.

Fitz

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Fitz505

Pumping the bunkers empty was the option. If I recall, there is still almost 1/2 million gallons still aboard. Of course you are dealing with a government organization, so by the time they get around to doing anything, it will probably just collapse someday. Then add the fact, it is a wargrave (people are still be buried there (urns only), that probably compounds the problem as far as preservation is concerned.

Fitz

I think the wargrave issue is the biggest reason, but there was a technical reason also. I dod't remember what it was.

[AG124]

So, uh, has anyone heard about discovery of any of the wrecks way back from my first list? :P

[JSLTIGER]

As far as the Arizona goes, they're also concerned about what may happen to the wreck if they empty the tanks (i.e. they could collapse from the difference in pressure after 65 years). I'm also pretty sure that I've read that the Navy is planning to empty those tanks after the last survivor dies, so as to fulfill the legend that the ship will continue to "mourn" for its crew until the last of them passes on.

[Stealth Hunter]

The USS Indianapolis has never been found and probably never will be. An expedition set out to find it in 2005. They found lumps of coal and a few deckhouses. Nothing else. It sank in some of the deepest places on Earth (Mariana Trench is 45,000 feet deep...), so as I said, it will probably never be found assuming it even survived the plunge (munitions and all inside might have gone off whilst being smashed around; water pressure alone on them may have set them off).

[authorshop]

Not sure what those guy's found, but it would seem very unlikely that the Indianapolis was coal fired. I have not looked in to this but I know she was only built in 1930's, I think everyone was using oil by then.
She will still be out there somewhere, and no doubt will one day be found. Remember, even large sections of HMS Hood still exists, and she had a magazine explode.

[Stealth Hunter]

They found coal. That's all I know. They're starting to suspect it may have come from a Japanese destroyer, but they're not sure.

The Hood sank in waters not nearly 45,000 feet deep (45,000 comes from a tiny crack that continues to run downwards inside the trench bottom; nobody is sure where it stops). We're talking the deepest point on Earth here, not a couple of miles (like 2 or 3). The Trench is over 9 miles down. At the bottom, the water column above exerts a pressure of 108.6 MPa, over one thousand times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level.

That's 8 tons PER SQUARE INCH, more than enough to cause a sinking battleship to implode, let alone destroy munitions inside.

The speed that the Indianapolis would have gained during her fall probably would be what would set off the munitions inside. Assuming it wasn't smashed to pieces upon hitting the bottom like a wooden dollhouse falling off a 50-story building, then it's highly unlikely that anything survived the explosions of bombs and shells.

[Prof]

Originally Posted by Stealth Hunter

The Hood sank in waters not nearly 45,000 feet deep (45,000 comes from a tiny crack that continues to run downwards inside the trench bottom; nobody is sure where it stops). We're talking the deepest point on Earth here, not a couple of miles (like 2 or 3). The Trench is over 9 miles down. At the bottom, the water column above exerts a pressure of 108.6 MPa, over one thousand times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level.

The deepest point on Earth is thought to be Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, which is just short of 36,000 ft deep. That point is a good 500 miles from where the Indianapolis went down. The best information I can find says that the Indianapolis went down in water no more than 20,000 ft deep. That's certainly deeper than Titanic, Bismarck or Hood but it's roughly the same depth as some wreckage of the Kaga which was found recently.

That's 8 tons PER SQUARE INCH, more than enough to cause a sinking battleship to implode, let alone destroy munitions inside.

Only unflooded, sealed areas would implode. Ships sink because they're full of water, so generally there aren't many areas left which could implode.

The speed that the Indianapolis would have gained during her fall probably would be what would set off the munitions inside. Assuming it wasn't smashed to pieces upon hitting the bottom like a wooden dollhouse falling off a 50-story building, then it's highly unlikely that anything survived the explosions of bombs and shells.

I have no numbers to back this up, but I would think that a sinking ship reaches terminal velocity quite quickly. There are many examples of virtually intact wrecks which have fallen nearly as deep at the Indianapolis would be, so I don't imagine this would be a problem.

Edit: Another consideration regarding the leakage of oil from the Arizona is that, at present, the leak is relatively small and the oil dissipates without any problem. If the Navy attempted to remove the oil and it went wrong, there is the posibility that a large quantity of oil could be released in one go, which would be bad!

[bookworm_020]

If you want to add to the not found list HMAS Sydney, She went missing off the West Australian coast after fighting KSK Kormoran

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...d_HSK_Kormoran

[bookworm_020]

Originally Posted by bookworm_020

If you want to add to the not found list HMAS Sydney, She went missing off the West Australian coast after fighting KSK Kormoran

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...d_HSK_Kormoran

I guess the good news is that she has been found, alnog with KSK Kormoran. They are about to get some photos of the wreck in the near future.

Graf Zeppelin was raised by the Soviets and the Germans let them keep it for scrap.

Which they then used for bomb and torpedo test and then sunk it, as previous posts have stated.

[Fr8monkey]

I was watching a piece on the history channel just yesterday on the USS Indianapolis being found; but I wasn't reall paying attention (on for background noise).

The USS Oklahoma was raised and then sold for scrap due to the excessive damage http://www.pacificwrecks.com/ships/usn/BB-37.html

[GOZO]

to empty those tanks after the last survivor dies

That must be the key.

Otherwise you just replace the fuel with seawater as they are emptied but the case mentioned means "disturbing" a grave site.

Honor to the men of the Arizona

/OB