'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!
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.
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.