Posted on 07/08/2025 9:49:27 AM PDT by Red Badger
A mysterious object spotted on the South Pacific seafloor has been identified as the bow of a torpedoed World War II ship that famously sailed thousands of miles backwards to avoid sinking, historians say.
The nearly 100-foot long section of the USS New Orleans was found Sunday, July 6, by the Ocean Exploration Trust as it searched the seafloor near Guadalcanal with a remotely operated vehicle.
A positive identification was made with the help of paint fragments still clinging to the hull, along with an engraved anchor, the trust reported.
The bow, which fell to a depth of 2,214 feet, had been unaccounted for since Nov. 30, 1942, when a Japanese torpedo detonated the ship’s forward magazines during the Battle of Tassafaronga, the National WWII Museum reports.
The impact killed 182 men and left the USS New Orleans struggling to stay afloat, but the crew refused to give up, the museum says.
What happened next counts as an “improbable story,” the trust says.
To avoid the ship sinking, sailors “jury-rigged a bow of coconut logs” brought from shore, then sailed “backward to the United States for permanent repairs,” the trust reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
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“To avoid the ship sinking, sailors “jury-rigged a bow of coconut logs” brought from shore, then sailed “backward to the United States for permanent repairs,”
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Only Americans are resourceful enough to come up with that.
Built a new bow from coconut trees?
They must have had the Professor from Gilligan’s Island as a crew member!
Unbelievable. I think the sacrifices made by the Navy in WWII is never appreciated enough.
“All back 0ne-third”, 0ne would suppose...
At the time, he (Russell Johnson) was busy in the US Army Air Force. He flew 44 combat missions in the Pacific Theater during World War II as a bombardier in B-25 twin-engined medium bombers
Yes. I watched it a couple of days ago. He has an excellent channel
40,000 aviators’ lives lost over Germany.
“The days of being able to improvise like this are long gone as everything is to advanced to operate using basic components”
Well, to a certain extent I guess....working at the depot level supporting the Navy Warfighter, more than once I saw a jet wing or fuselage patched with aluminum harvest from a soda or beer can......you know what the Marines say....”improvise, adapt, overcome”.
Amazing. It just boggles the mind.
Apparently that is a “stub bow” that was temporarily put on it in Australia where it initially went with the coconut-log bow; the #2 turret had its guns removed and the #1 turret was missing entirely at this point. The ship sailed backwards with the stub bow all the way across the Pacific back for full repairs on the West Coast. Still an amazing story!
WHAT REPAIRS???
ENVIROS WOULD HAVE INSISTED ON MAKING IT A NEW REEF FOR FISHES
General Marshall was pretty good about selecting promising young army officers for higher command. He made a few errors, but they were quickly relieved, and a very few got recycled.
Henry Knox convened a board of 9 high ranking naval officers to create a similar list for the USN. You know what they say about committees? I defy you to recognize most of the officers on this list.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2011/may/picking-winners
After 5 years of planning and spending billions!
Fat Electrician?
I’ve been on this site over 26 years and never heard of that guy.
PS - I’m an electrician. But not the fat one.
To avoid the ship sinking, sailors “jury-rigged a bow of coconut logs”
The remaining coconuts, which were transported to England by african and european swallows were later put to use replicating the sound of horses in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
That is quite a story! I had never heard of this or anything like it before.
There’s a story I read about a destroyer which took a Kamikaze hit which set the bow ablaze. The crew probably would not have been successful inputting out the fire. But, there was a cruiser nearby, throwing out a huge rooster tail of water. So the destroyer sailed up under the rooster tail and the fire was quickly extinguished!
Destroyers, cruisers, and aircraft carriers were all types of ships that had the bow damaged or blown away and using coconut tree logs as “bows” were used frequently to get the ship back to Pearl or Washington State...
Most returned to combat...
This one was truly unique as the stern was blown off...
The U.S. was losing hundreds of ships, and it required considerable effort to cannibalize and repurpose parts.
If this would have happened today, the repairs would have taken 5 years and several billion $$= = =
That is the cost of the envrionmental study, to be done first.
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