'Too tough to die' shipwreck discovered in Pacific

The U.S.S. Nevada survived Pearl Harbor, Normandy, Okinawa, and two nuclear tests—but the recent discovery of its wreckage raises new questions about what ultimately brought it down.

 Even as world wars go, the U.S.S. Nevada was a resilient ship: It was the only battleship to get underway during the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, surviving bombs and torpedoes before the burning vessel was beached and later repaired. It trained its guns on German positions at Normandy on D-Day, and went on to support the invasions of Okinawa and Iwo Jima. At the end of the war, U.S.S. Nevada was selected as the central target for the first nuclear test at Bikini Atoll, where it survived a 23-kiloton aerial detonation (the bomb missed), as well as a second underwater detonation. Finally, on July 31, 1948, following a four-day naval gunfire exercise, the toughest ship of the Second World War was deliberately sunk in the Pacific by the U.S. Navy.

 

Now, thanks to archival research and underwater survey of more than 100 square miles of seafloor, the remains of the Nevada have been located 65 nautical miles southwest of Pearl Harbor. The announcement was made today in a press release. The discovery is the result of collaboration between the cultural resources management firm SEARCH Inc. and the marine robotics company Ocean Infinity.

The remains of the Nevada are located at a depth of more than 15,400 feet—nearly three miles—beneath the Pacific Ocean. An initial survey of wreckage indicates that the battleship came to rest upside down on a muddy plain, with a debris field that stretches some 2,000 feet from the hull. The bow and stern of the vessel are missing.

"It's really a great thing that they found it," says Richard Ramsey, who served as a boatswain's mate on the Nevada from Normandy through Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
 It took four and a half days to sink the U.S.S. Nevada. The 575-foot-long battleship, painted bright orange from its earlier role as a nuclear test target, was towed out of Pearl Harbor to sea, where a classified explosive was detonated in its hull. Then it was pummeled with shells launched from cruisers and bombs from planes during a multi-day naval exercise. Finally, on July 31, 1948, a single torpedo dropped by an American plane allegedly did what the Germans and Japanese could not: send Nevada to the bottom of the sea.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/05/uss-nevada-shipwreck-discovered-pacific/