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.
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.)
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.
The Yorktowns identifying numeral5appears 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.
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 wooden flight deck, which would have jutted over the stern, was apparently ripped away when the ship plunged into the seafloor.
Extending that is the sobering thought of how those deaths impacted all those who loved them - the end of some family lines - loss of a child who never came home to attain older age and families of their own and be there in their parents' twilight years - children parentless - the thoughts are endless.
We owe so very much to them, and to all who serve and will serve.
May God guide us all, and may we always honor and remember them and the price paid for our freedoms.