This website has some facinating photographs of the sinking of the carrier U.S.S. Oriskany as an artifical reef:

http://www.irishmansoftware.com/Oriskany.htm

Note that the electronics to control the explosions and the portable generator to power them were put in a small boat, which floated free when the carrier sank.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Project

Readers:

Aparently this is, or rather, was a popular site to visit.

The website owners took it off net to "save bandwidth." Supposedly will be back up in mid-June.

Try this

This wreck is is HIGH on my hit list of must-do dives. As a diver trained in helium breathing mixtures and overhead environments this wreck is going to be just awesome diving, especially since it is one of just two diveable US carriers. The other is the USS Saratoga in Bikini Atoll which was sunk by nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, word on the street is that all of the charter operators running to the "Big O" are all booked up for this season. As I understand it is 60 feet to the top of the towers, 130 to the flight deck and 215 to the sand. For super interesting reports try thedecostop.com. You have to register for free as a member of the board, but if shipwrecks interest you, there are volumes of information there from people who are doing the dives. I followed the sinking minute to minute there in their shipwreck forums. There are amazing pictures there too with reports from people actually involved in the sinking and the first dives conducted on her. Fascinating stuff.

Ryan Parkevich

For a couple days after the ship was sunk there were links to coverage of the sinking on the websites of several of the networks. It was fascinating to watch the spray venting from the ship from the tremendous velocity of the escaping air, and the motor launch was spinning around in a whirlpool right after it launched itself from the flight deck as the aft portion when under. You could also see the tremendous inflow of water into the hangar deck in the final minutes of the sinking, which brought to mind some of the writings of the sinking of IJN SHINANO, where some crewmembers who were swimming away from the ship were swept back inside by the suction as the hangar flooded.

In a classified project last year, the Navy sank my old boat, USS America (CV-66) somewhere in deep water after several weeks of tests. Perhaps someday someone will find and document her wreck. Here's the only photo released:



There are some interesting things to learn from this photo. Like the Big O sinking, there was a small (ha!) liberty boat on the deck that floated away free. The large red stains in the water might be rust (the ship was known to be in poor condition, she was all used up, as some on this board say) perhaps released when the ship broke up during the sinking. Many large ships break up during sinking in deep water when there is no support for the shifting weight; at only 200 ft, Big 0's stern is already on the bottom in the photo above. Hopefully, the data gleaned during America's sinking be useful to the designers of the next generation (CVN 78) class carriers.

But at least she's not scrap and will be around for a long, long time. I'll take rust over Japanese cars. Here she is in her glory:



Photo by me, 1983 from a HS-11 SH-3H helo. Spent five years on her, stood under her props in dry dock, climbed into a boiler once to document scale, did the same in one of her condensers after about a zillion jelly fish got sucked into them. Even climbed her mast once. Oh, spent alot of time standing in line to throw trash over the side as well :-)

Bob
PH2, 1980-1985

There is a rumor that an abandoned Pennsy B8a is concealed below decks!


JUST KIDDING!

The "America" was used to test some modern cruise missles and apparently "hung on" longer than expected. The weapons were top secret and the tests, also, secret. While the Navy no doubt photographed the sinkex, that single splash at the end is the only thing released. Eventually, I expect some damage photos will be released. All this is based on rumors which have circulated in groups devoted to naval discussions.

Guys,

So the question is why are they doing it this way?

Besides the fact that is is the fate of most metal ships to be scrapped, the Navy is faced with a problem of meeting environmental rules that make it nearly impossible to break up their ships in a conventional way.

There are several too many air craft carrier museums. The USS Hornet is a double museum with a great NASA Exhibit aboard about the Apollo 11 and 12 recoveries. But the Hornet Foundation is something like $300K in the red.

My brother in law served aboard the USS Amereica. He is glad that she is gone instead of rusting away in the Reserve Fleet somewhere.

Ted Miles

They had to scrub Big O for environmental hazards before the sink-ex. It's a real plus for the local economy, I saw one report that the wreck was expected to bring $90+ million into the local economy over the next few years. Here's a link to a webpage where can learn about the reefing program as well learn what ships are available
http://peos.crane.navy.mil/reefing/

What they can't do sell the boat to a scrapper who will tow it overseas for scrapping for fear the overseas scrapper will sell it.

The Oriskany was a Ticonderoga sub-class carrier. Now for those purists out there, from 9 on they were Essex class carriers but there were significant changes made in the Ticonderoga CVA-14, that all run on carriers were Ticonderoge sub-class carriers. Having served on the Big "T" it pains me to see ay Essex class go down. There were none sunk during WW ll. And the Hornet has space in tha hangar for all Essex class carrier associations to display stuff.

Later!
Mr. Ed
BM3 1965-1968

PS. BDA is Bomb Damage Assessment.

Oh well, in the opposite direction, from the ocean, Pine Creek RR, Allaire, N.J. gets the 2 largest unused 2-2-2 "Planet" class steam locos ever built in the U.S.!

Yea, if they can raise them from the ocean floor.

Later!
Mr. Ed