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To: Snow Bunny;All
“Oh, Yorktown! You’re so beautiful,” exclaimed Mike Swarm, the National Geographic Midway Expedition’s chief electronics technician, on May 20, 1998. A day earlier the expedition had found the U.S.S. Yorktown lying 16,650 feet (5,075 meters) underwater. Humans were now seeing the aircraft carrier for the first time since it sank in 1942. As the U.S. Navy’s Advanced Tethered Vehicle (ATV), a remotely controlled submersible, transmitted images, Midway survivor Bill Surgi led a virtual tour of his ship. His verdict? “She looks good for the shape she’s in.”

Have a look at the sunken Yorktown, and judge for yourself.

At the bow, two 20-millimeter antiaircraft guns are dimly visible in a gun tub below the flight deck. Lines through the hawser hole may have been used to haul in a towing cable in an attempt to save the carrier.

Three miles (4.8 kilometers) beneath the Pacific, the Yorktown still points her guns skyward, toward the Japanese warplanes that bombed her. (This and the other photos were taken by cameras on a U.S. Navy robot submersible.)

The wooden flight deck, which would have jutted over the stern, was apparently ripped away when the ship plunged into the seafloor.

Guns top part of the “island,” the superstructure housing the bridge and pilothouse. The circular object is a wiper used to clear a foggy porthole. Countless coats of paint keep the ship gray and free from corrosion.

On the port side, a hole shows where two aerial torpedoes hit on June 4, 1942, ripping away armor plate and opening the hull. Oil stains above the hole indicate that the torpedoes ruptured fuel tanks.

The Yorktown’s identifying numeral—5—appears on her bow. Also visible is a crack that probably opened when the carrier hit bottom at a speed estimated to be about 45 miles (72 kilometers) per hour.

Sort of makes your eyes mist up don't they?

141 posted on 06/04/2002 9:10:28 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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To: SAMWolf
Good post, Sam!
229 posted on 06/04/2002 11:28:29 AM PDT by MistyCA
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