Arizona Memorial Closed After Tugboat Collision
A tugboat maneuvering a hospital ship evidently crashed into the floating dock leading to the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 27 May, forcing the temporary shutdown of the iconic and heavily visited site.
The memorial, straddling the hull of the battleship, sunk during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, commemorates the sailors and Marines killed during the 7 December 1941 attack that heralded U.S. entry into World War II.
While fortunately no harm was done to the remains of the Arizona, the memorial experienced “minor superficial damage,” Navy Public Affairs reported. There were no injuries.
The incident occurred as the USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) was transiting from her berth at Hotel Pier and preparing to go to sea. In the area for the annual Pacific Partnership deployment, the hospital ship was heading out to the channel when one of the two tugboats assisting her apparently struck the Arizona Memorial’s floating dock. (Whether the tug, or the ship herself, or both, actually made contact with the structure is under investigation.) Strong prop wash from the ship pushed the floating dock and access structure (brow) approximately ten feet toward the memorial, damaging handrails and the dock’s infrastructure.
The Navy removed the brow and immediately began repairing the above-water floating dock and access structure and evaluating the underwater mooring system of chains and concrete block anchors. At press time, the Navy’s goal was to have the repairs completed and the memorial reopened to visitors by the first week in June.
“Rest assured,” said Captain Stan Keeve, commander, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, “we’re working closely with our partners at the National Park Service to safely reopen the USS Arizona Memorial as soon as we possibly can.”
Scientists Survey ‘Amazingly Intact’ WWII-era Shipwreck
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), working with private industry partners and the U.S. Navy, has confirmed the location and condition of the former USS Independence (CVL-22), the lead ship of her class of light aircraft carriers that were critical during the American naval offensive in the Pacific during World War II.
With her hull and flight deck clearly visible and what appears to be a plane in the hangar bay, the carrier resting in 2,600 feet of water off California’s Farallon Islands is “amazingly intact,” said a NOAA spokesman.
The Independence operated in the central and western Pacific from November 1943 through August 1945 and later was one of more than 90 vessels assembled as a target fleet for Operation Crossroads, the Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests, in 1946. Damaged by shock waves, heat, and radiation, the Independence survived the Bikini Atoll tests and, like dozens of other Operation Crossroads ships, returned to the United States.
While moored at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard, the Independence was the primary focus of the Navy’s studies on decontamination until age and the possibility of her sinking led the Navy to tow the blast-damaged carrier to sea for scuttling on 26 January 1951.
“After 64 years on the seafloor, the Independence sits on the bottom as if ready to launch her planes,” said James Delgado, chief scientist on the Independence mission and maritime-heritage director for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
The mission was conducted this past spring by scientists and technicians on board the sanctuary vessel R/V Fulmar, using an 18½-foot autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), the Echo Ranger, provided by Boeing through a cooperative research-and-development agreement with NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. Boeing also partnered with technology company Coda Octopus to integrate its 3D-imaging sonar system, Echoscope, into the AUV.
The survey determined that the Independence is upright, slightly listing to starboard, with much of her flight deck intact, and with gaping holes leading to the hangar decks that once housed the carrier’s aircraft.
Delgado, primary author of a 1990 scientific report on the history and archaeology of the ships sunk at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, said currently there are no plans to enter the vessel.
‘Old Ironsides’ Into Drydock
The frigate USS Constitution entered drydock in May for a nearly three-year restoration, with most of the work to be done below the waterline and in the bow area.
This first dry-docking of “Old Ironsides” in more than 20 years was originally slated for March; it was stalled for two months because of Boston’s record-snowfall winter.
The Constitution briefly sailed unassisted in Boston Harbor on 19 August 2012 to mark her War of 1812 battle against HMS Guerriere. (It was during that sea fight that the U.S. frigate earned her nickname when an American sailor, noting that some of the British cannonballs fell harmlessly off the ship’s stout oak hull, purportedly shouted: “Huzza! Her sides are made of iron!”)
The 2015 restoration marks the first time the Constitution has been dry-docked since 1992. Dry Dock #1, in the Charlestown Navy Yard, is the second-oldest operational drydock in the United States—and the Constitution was the first warship to enter the facility, on 24 June 1833.
The current restoration will include replacing lower-hull planking and caulking; removing the copper sheathing and replacing it with 3,400 sheets of new copper that will protect the ship’s hull below the waterline; replacement of select deck beams; and ongoing preservation and repair of the ship’s rigging, upper masts, and yards. The estimated cost of the restoration is expected to be $12 million to $15 million and to be paid for by the Navy.
Remembering the Gallipoli Campaign
The Allies’ World War I Gallipoli campaign (See “The Gallipoli Gamble,” April) was extensively memorialized in California with Anzac Day centenary services in San Diego and Los Angeles.
Observed since 1915, Anzac Day originated to honor the men of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli. Since then, 25 April has come to serve as a broader day of remembrance for all Australians and New Zealanders who have served and died in wars.
Karen Lanyon, Australian Consul-General of Los Angeles, hosted events at the Newport Beach Film Festival, participated in the Anzac Day services in San Diego and Los Angeles, and coordinated a similar event in San Francisco.
The 23 April opening-night gala at the Newport Beach Film Festival included a screening of The Water Diviner, directed by Russell Crowe, who stars as an Australian farmer who travels to Turkey to find his three missing sons in the Gallipoli campaign. On 24 April, Australian navy, air force, and army, and New Zealand air force personnel gathered in Coronado, California, for a reception and viewing of a live telecast of the Anzak Gallipoli Dawn Service held in Canakkale, Turkey.
On the morning of 25 April, the USS Midway Museum held a service, which included participation by the Navy Band of Navy Region Southwest and a flyover by F/A-18 Hornet aircraft by Marine Strike Fighter Squadron 314 of MCAS Miramar. On 26 April, a service was held at the Los Angeles National Cemetery, followed by a community food fair and music event on the UCLA campus. Countries represented with the flag bearing and wreath laying during the service included consul-generals of Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Turkey, France, and Canada, as well as Rex Kern, director of the L.A. National Cemetery for the United States.
–Yasuto Tana
Grants Awarded to Maritime Preservation, Education Projects
In late April, the National Park Service (NPS), in partnership with the Maritime Administration, announced the award of approximately $2.6 million in Maritime Heritage Program grants to help teach about and preserve sites and objects related to American maritime history.
“Our maritime heritage is woven into the nation’s history and identity,” said NPS Director Jonathan B. Jarvis in a press release. “These grants will not only help preserve our maritime resources for future generations, but many of these projects will also directly connect communities to that heritage through educational outreach and involvement in preservation efforts.”
U.S. naval history–related projects receiving grants include preservation of the World War II–era USS Pampanito (SS-383), rehabilitation of the rigging of the sloop-of-war Constellation, the frigate Constitution Museum’s upcoming “From Forest to Frigate” exhibit, preservation of the USS Growler (SSG-577), emergency hull restoration of the battleship North Carolina (BB-55), continued preservation of the protected cruiser Olympia, the USS Yorktown (CV-10) “Interactive Engine Room Experience,” audio tours on board the USS Texas (BB-35), and the ironclad Monitor Artifact Conservation and Outreach Project.
What’s Up at the NHHC
Preservation 2.0: Brick by Brick
The Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) is correcting the chronic issues catalogued in the 2011 Navy Inspector General (IG) report.
With the exception of Building 200, NHHC facilities and offices at the Washington Navy Yard were “inadequate to support the command’s mission of historic preservation and the administrative requirements of the staff.” The facilities did not meet temperature, convection, and humidity-control requirements necessary to preserve the Navy’s historical records, books, art, and artifacts. The report urged that “whatever is done, in the end, must include provisions for making archives available on a continuous basis for research.”
The NHHC identified and resourced several projects to triage the most significant facility shortfalls, and preserve those works of art, artifacts, and archival documents that had the highest risk of permanent loss until such time that the Navy is able to invest in a long-term storage solution for its precious history. Archives lacked proper environmental controls. Mold was literally erasing the Navy’s history, and valuable documents on acidic paper were crumbling to dust. Due mostly to chronic understaffing, vast troves of documents collected since 1947 were still in file cabinets or Federal Records Center boxes with no usable record of their contents. The Navy, in short, had no intellectual control over its documented past. Even research on Admirals Arleigh Burke and Elmo Zumwalt had been bypassed or ignored by official historians and scholars because of the extensive size of their unprocessed collections. As an interim step while awaiting a permanent solution, the command has since completed a facility rehabilitation to improve—although not yet fully correct—environmental control in the archives.
Meanwhile, a number of other NHHC facilities, including the Great Lakes Naval Museum and the U.S. Naval War College Museum, are also undergoing a host of much-needed renovation and restoration initiatives.
Most notably, the opening of its new artifact-storage facility is the largest improvement NHHC has made to lay the foundation for responsible fulfillment of its stewardship mission.
The Navy first began collecting artifacts such as ships’ bells and naval ordnance before the Civil War. The Navy’s Central Artifact Collection dates to 1908, when the Spokane, Washington, Navy League donated to the Navy a silver gunnery trophy now worth $4.5 million. That was also the last year a full accounting of the naval-artifact collection was documented. Today, the collection contains hundreds of thousands of artifacts, ranging from uniform buttons to aircraft.
The IG report detailed the challenges of managing and preserving this vast and global collection. The Navy’s holdings were scattered in locations along the East Coast, none of which was suitable or adequate. Its largest warehouse (in Virginia) was too small and had no climate control, poor air circulation, and no curatorial workspace. Storage facilities at the Washington Navy Yard provided equally poor environmental conditions. Mold was rendering textiles unrepairable; paint was cracking and flaking off priceless paintings; and other objects were deteriorating in the unsatisfactory conditions.
This year, the NHHC made a first step toward an eventual long-term solution by consolidating the Navy’s artifact collection into the 300,000-square-foot Collection Management Facility (CMF) in Richmond, Virginia. The facility consists of three 100,000-square-foot bays capable of safely storing the bulk of the collections with a new fan system for air circulation providing partial climate control. The CMF also houses office space to support curatorial functions, including an on-site conservation laboratory—a first for the NHHC. Both curators and conservators are assigned to the CMF, which will make managing the collection dramatically more efficient. While a significant improvement from the previous general-use warehouses, the facility is at best a 75 percent solution. For now, the highest-risk artifacts are in remediation at an interim commercial facility with fully climate-controlled measures.
Additionally, the Navy’s Art Collection (consisting of more than 20,000 paintings, drawings, and sculptures) has been secured for remediation in an environmentally suitable commercial facility in northern Virginia.
While the NHHC is still seeking permanent solutions to its many facility issues, its staff members are able to report steady progress on multiple fronts in the ongoing remediation and reinvigoration of the enterprise.
Naval Institute Recognizes Its Authors
At the U.S. Naval Institute’s 142nd Annual Meeting, held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on 22 April, Admiral James G. Stavridis commends Charles E. Brodine, Naval History’s 2014 Author of the Year, for his article, “War Visits the Chesapeake” (October). The Naval Institute Press recognized Bernard Cole as its Author of the Year, and Proceedings honored Captain Arthur H. Barber III (U.S. Navy, Retired) as Author of the Year for his articles “Rethinking the Future Fleet” and “We Must Own Access.”
The 2014 General Prize Essay Contest winners were also recognized:
• First Prize: Lieutenant Commander Wolf Melbourne, U.S. Navy, “Operating in an Age of Austerity”
• Second Prize: Lieutenant Ryan P. Hilger, U.S. Navy, “The Coming Era of ‘Omnispatial Warfare’”
• Third Prize: Lieutenant Roger L. Misso, U.S. Navy, “Sea Power & Fortitude.”