Posted on 12/06/2017 8:37:06 AM PST by DFG
A team manning a deep sea research vessel says it has found and captured the first underwater images of a sunken U.S. Navy ship credited with firing America’s opening shots of World War II.
The USS Ward was located in the waters near Ponson Island in the Philippines, an expedition crew led by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen announced, just before the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Cool Find! Thanks for posting.
Paul Allen has led many of these finds. Good for him and us.
Ping.
This worries me though since it has been found.
I have read Prince of Wales and Repulse are being "extensively damaged" with explosives by scrap metal dealers.
Those foreign people don't give two damns about them being war graves.
Built a model of that ship back in the late 60’s. My grandfather served in similar flush deck destroyer in WWI era.
The five inch gun which sank the midget sub is on the grounds of the Minnesota State Capital, due to the fact that most of the crew were US Naval Reserve sailors from Minnesota activated pre Pearl Harbor.
Go USNR!
Gun crew pics plus 1919 pictureon bottom.
Built as a Wickes class destroyer post WW-I.
Wickes class had short legs, the Bethlehem built ships had difficulty even crossing the Atlantic without refueling.
Bethlehem’s were scrapped when their boilers wore out in the 30’s.
Fast, but had a wide turning radius making for a lousy ASW platform.
Most were converted to transports during the war and scrapped soon after.
Some were given to the Brits in the Destroyers for Bases agreement, they weren’t well regarded.
Today is December 8, 1991. This is an oral history tape with Mr. Orville Ethier. On December 7, 1941, Mr. Ethier was a Machinist’s Mate Second Class, aboard the destroyer, USS WARD. He was twenty years old at that time. This oral history tape is taking place at the Waikiki Park Hotel, in Honolulu. I’m John Martini from the National Park Service and this tape is done
in conjunction with the USS ARIZONA Memorial and with television station KHET in Honolulu.
https://www.nps.gov/valr/learn/historyculture/upload/OrvilleEthier.pdf
DFG, thank you for this Pearl Harbor related posting.
IIRC, Allen has located a number of ships at the bottom of Ironbottom Sound.
Thanks for the ping.
During WWI, the new, and oil-fired USS Arizona, was restricted to the East Coast of the US, partly because of U-boats, but mostly because the Brits couldn't supply fuel oil.
During the early part of WWII, most of the US Navy oilers were transporting oil to Britain, severely hampering the use of the fuel-hungry, but powerful battleships that were repaired after Pearl Harbor.
Interesting story! Thank you!
FTA: ...found and captured the first underwater images of a sunken U.S. Navy ship
Who parked it there?
The article says Lt. Cmdr. William Outerbridge, who was in charge of the Ward in Pearl Harbor, scuttled the ship.
I imagine he had to pay for the ship like Jerry Lewis did in one of his movies.
ping
Very cool! Thanks for the ping...
Just a bit of history!
yes it is... it’s something i have never even thought about
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