Were many people trapped inside the ship when it went down? I thought they were all on deck.There were a few sailors stoking coal to keep the generators going but they emerged on deck when the ship went down. If they were on deck they wouldn’t stay with the ship when it went down.
As a side note, warships are different because they are owned by the country and not salvageable without the country’s permission. The US salvaged most of the battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor and salvaged some gun barrels of the Arizona. There is a great book by a salvage diver at Pearl Harbor. Tirpiz was salvaged. In the South Pacific, salvage companies are raiding these ships for the steel. Whole ships disappear. Very sad.
“...There is a great book by a salvage diver at Pearl Harbor....”
“Descent Into Darkness”. One of THE best books I have ever read.
I have a hardcover copy of it. It is amazing. Salvaging operations on the USS Oklahoma.
You should read about the salvage and retrieval of around 45 captured German warships held at Scapa Flow soon after WWI ended.
“the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow was a deliberate act of sabotage ordered by a commander who refused to let his ships become the spoils of war”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-48599958
I read a really good book about the operation once, can’t remember the name..quite the work of incredible engineering at the time.