Posted on 02/12/2019 10:36:21 AM PST by DFG
The wreck of the World War II aircraft carrier USS Hornet has been discovered in the South Pacific, 77 years after Japanese forces sunk the ship in a fierce battle.
The research vessel Petrel, owned by the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, discovered the Hornet three miles under the ocean surface off the Solomon Islands late last month.
The Hornet, the last U.S. fleet carrier to be sunk by enemy fire, lost 140 hands under a relentless Japanese air bombing attack at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on October 26, 1942.
As Imperial Navy surface forces closed in, all hands were ordered to abandon ship, and the Hornet was finished off by enemy torpedoes and sent to its watery grave.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I wonder if Mr Allen had the Hornet on his “to do” list before he died.
Wow! First I heard of it, thanks for posting it.
It’s a tomb. I say leave it be.
Wow! The Hornet!
I’m pretty sure a lot pf people knew where it sank. It’s not like it vanished without anyone looking. They just haven’t bothered to attempt to disturb the site. Until now.
'If you go down to my locker, there's 40 bucks in it, you can have it!' he told CBS News.
Don't you just love an old boy with a sense of humor?
I had thought the U.S.S. Hornet lied in the relatively shallow waters of what was called "Iron Bottom Sound", not further away under three miles of ocean!
The pictures are fascinating to be this intact after 77 years. Just wow!!! She must have been built well to save 94% of the crew after a pounding so ferocious!
It’s three miles down. Not gonna be doing a whole lot to it other than surveying and documenting.
Allen’s crews have been very respectful of the wrecks they have located in Ironbottom Sound.
Just a reminder, the Doolittle Raiders took off from the Hornet.
Ping!
Their saying she was sunk in “Iron Bottom Sound” is misleading and perhaps intentional, though many US and Japanese ships are resting at the bottom of it. She was sunk during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Santa_Cruz_Islands
which are several hundred miles east of Guadalcanal and Iron Bottom Sound.
Is there a reason the name Hornet wasn’t used again for a carrier? Seems sticking with a traditional name like that would be better than using politicians’ names.
Or is it a tradition that the ship name dies with her when she’s lost in combat?
Just a reminder, the Doolittle Raiders took off from the Hornet.
The father of a friend of mine flew with Doolittle.
Also confusing matters is the ship renamed hornet almost immediately after the sinking.
She was well built. Of the three sisters in the Yorktown class, two sank, but only after taking several torpedoes each.
Big E (nterprise) survived the war only to meet the scrapper’s torch.
That so many of her crew survived is a testament to her quality construction, and the fact that her torpedo defenses were so good. (Other carriers, for example Taiho had less stellar records when it came to torpedo damage.)
It’s a pity Mr. Allen isn’t around to see the results of his efforts.
It was, another carrier was renamed hornet just a short time later.
No, not actually correct. Until today’s remote control robot submersibles, with their extremely long high-data cables and hovering abilities, their high-definition lights, sonars, and monitors, and the patience and accuracy of GPS satellites to maintain the survey vessel’s position overhead on the surface above the submersible, even IF you knew accurately the sunken vessel’s location accurately, you couldn’t search underwater at 15,000 - 20,000 feet deep and find it.
Takes a LOT of new technology to search, find, and maintain position above a sunken vessel. Kind of like driving a blimp at 20,000 foot altitude against the jet stream above a fog bank in a rainstorm while driving a drone through a circus tent while you take photo’s of the acrobats on trapezes.
I believe it was these guys that found the USS Indianapolis as well.
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