Chapter III: Archeological Record
(continued)

USS ARIZONA

Site Description and Analysis (continued)

Moving inboard, the remains of bulkheads and port gun tubs for 5-inch guns can still be seen. A set of boat cradles is visible. Concrete pieces lie on the deck, probably leftovers from monument construction. Open hatches and ventilators are notable on the deck. The open hatches are partially blocked by marine growth, and the interior of the ship is filled with silt.

Figure 3.19. Open hatch on USS ARIZONA with stairwell heavily fouled with marine organisms. (NPS photo by Larry Murphy)

Figure 3.20. Ventilator on deck of USS ARIZONA. (NPS photo by Larry Murphy)

A flagstaff has been attached to the remains of one leg of the mainmast tripod at the aft memorial face. The ship's movie projection booth is extant but deteriorating fast, due to the weight of chains that run over it to the dock. Here, too, are items of modern origin dropped from the memorial by visitors, but fewer than on the forward memorial face.

The major changes to the ship aft of the memorial seem to be more the result of Navy salvage than battle damage. The teak-covered main deck was covered forward of the No. 3 turret. All the 14-inch guns have been removed from turrets 3 and 4. An old concrete mooring platform is attached to the No. 3 barbette, which is the largest ship feature above the water (Figure 3.22). Mooring bitts still remain atop the platform.

Figure 3.21. Air is trapped between porthole blackout cover and glass on USS ARIZONA. (NPS photo by Larry Murphy)

Figure 3.22. No. 3 barbette protrudes higher than any other feature of the ship. (NPS photo by Larry Murphy)

A few feet from the forward starboard quarter of the No. 3 turret is a hatch opening leaking oil that forms a visible slick on the surface near the memorial. A National Park Service dive team filmed the globules slowly making their way to the surface through a small hole in the deck at the rate of about one every 5 to 10 seconds. How much oil remains in the bunkers cannot be determined without knowing how much was released during the wreck event (no fuel removal is reported in the salvage record log), but with that information it would be possible to accurately determine how much fuel leaks out every day and estimate how much might be left in the ship.

A 12-inch-diameter cable of bundled wire strands can be seen running along the inside of both gunnels in the stern. The function of these cables is unknown, although our original guess that they had something to do with degaussing was not confirmed by military personnel familiar with degaussing technology. The airplane catapult base is visible on the stern. There is a hole in the starboard stern extending to amidships left from the salvage of the airplane recovery crane. On the port stern hull are some portholes that still hold trapped air between the blackout covers and the glass (Figure 3.21); this is the area of the admiral's cabin. The jackstaff hole at the stern is intact, although empty (Figure 3.23).

Figure 3.23. Jackstaff hole at stern of USS ARIZONA. Mooring bitts visible on left. (NPS photo by Larry Murphy)

Moving over the stern, the letters of the ship's name become visible when the biofouling is removed with a wire brush. Swimming under the fantail and down the starboard, one passes a solitary, small blast hole less than a foot in diameter in which an access ladder is visible attached to the forward bulkhead. The top two feet of the rudder protrudes from the silt directly underneath the fantail, but there is no sign of the propeller blades. They are probably still present but entirely covered with sediment. The salvage record log does not mention salvage of the screws.

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