Posted on 10/21/2019 9:25:38 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
MIDWAY ATOLL, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (AP) — A crew of deep-sea explorers and historians looking for lost World War II warships have found a second Japanese aircraft carrier that went down in the historic Battle of Midway.
Vulcan Inc.'s director of undersea operations Rob Kraft and Naval History and Heritage Command historian Frank Thompson reviewed high frequency sonar images of the warship Sunday and say that its dimensions and location mean it has to be the carrier Akagi.
The Akagi was found in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument resting in nearly 18,000 feet (5,490 meters) of water more than 1,300 miles (2,090 kilometers) northwest of Pearl Harbor.
The researchers used an autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, equipped with sonar to find the ship. The vehicle had been out overnight collecting data, and the image of a warship appeared in the first set of readings Sunday morning.
The first scan used low-resolution sonar, so the crew sent their AUV back to get higher-quality images.
"I'm sure of what we're seeing here, the dimensions that we're able to derive from this image (are) conclusive," Kraft said. "It can be none other than Akagi."
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Incredible. I have developed a strong interest in the Pacific Theater
Thanks, Gentlemen. I have something new to read and research.
And special thanks to The Greatest Generation
Indeed. It appears that her torpedoes and depth charges detonated as she went down. Still worth searching for whatever may remain of the wreck.
Wouldn’t the gravity acceleration constant would be affected by the resistance of water and pockets of buoyancy left within the ship?
None of those carriers were sunk. Deemed to heavily damaged to tow back to a safe harbor, they were all scuttled . This is a tribute to the durability of the AC carrier.
Vulcan Inc. = Paul Allen. :)
broke her in two.
Yorktown was located and photographed in 1998.
Fascinating ..... every WW2 naval movie takes on a different perspective.
Actually they probably didn’t detonate on her trip to the bottom. Her hangar decks was strewn with several dozen 500 and 1000 lb. bombs removed from aircraft when they swapped the bombs for torpedoes. The hangar deck crews didn’t take the time to strike the bombs back down to the magazines. When the American dive bombers struck the avgas system was blown open starting huge fires on the hangar deck which also caused the bombs to explode. Probably a majority of her flight decks was destroyed before she was torpedoed by one of the escorts.
yeah, that is correct
ballard also found the bismarck, in 1989
I was referring to the Hammann.
*ping*
#15 I would pull the ripcode way before hitting the ooze : )
about 14 years ago, had an opportunity to meet two of the survivors from Hammann sinking. They were attending a reunion of Yorktown CV5. The Yorktown association always invited all of the few survivors from Hammann to attend their reunions. I was attending the Yorktown reunion with my dad at the time. Both of these men had been topside on the fo’sle at the time the Japanese torpedo hit the ship.
Both had been thrown into the water by the force of the explosion. Both had seen both halves of the ship sink within a couple of minutes after being hit, carrying most of their shipmates to the bottom.
thx.
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It’s been 21 years since the Yorktown was found! I blew that one in how long I thought it had been. Thanks for the correction.
I can’t tell you how comforting it is to know that all four of those Japanese carriers sleep in the depths. Made all the difference for us from then on.
Yes, 4 of theirs plus the pilots and the aviation maintenance crews, which were as irreplaceable as the carriers.
That would be determined by the Currents, if the Ship was still underway or coasting as it went under water and the location of Hull breaches.
For example if there were 2 Hull large breaches say one in the Bow that took off the entire Bow and then one that had taken off the entire Deck at the Stern then there (in theory) would be a “flow through” of the water in the Ship. Causing a downward and forwards sink path.
Or if the Hull breach was amidships only on one side that would make the sink rate slower and probably more of a sink downward vs downward and forwards like above.
Or I could just be full of carp 💩 with My theories. I’m not a Maritime Hydrology Expert but I did stay a a Holiday Inn last night.
I’ve got almost 9 years sea time, all when other people werent dropping bombs or torpedoes at me trying to kill me.
These men were were amazing.
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