Scuba Jim
Contributor
Welcome back, avid reader(s) and I am sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. I have been busy at work!
So, I think the best thing for me to do is detail each boat, as you do do more than one dive on some boats.
I'll start with the Arkansas, as it's big and it's American!
Arkansas was a Wyoming-class dreadnought battleship built prior to WW1 and was 562ft in length, had a beam of 106ft and weighed 26,000 tons. She had an illustrious career during WW2, on Atlantic convoy duty, during the D-Day landings and the invasion of S France. She moved to the Pacific in late 1944 and was used to shuttle US troops back across the Pacific after the Japanese surrender. By then she was totally obsolete (like all battleships) and was assigned to the tests at Bikini.
USS Arkansas as she was in the good old days.
Like all good battleships, she turned turtle on the way down, and lies upside, the bottom of her keel resting in about 100ft of water. The first thing you notice as you descend to the ship is that the hull plates and ribs have been severely mangled in. Huge ripples run down the hull which presumably were caused by the huge wave created by the Baker blast.
Damaged hull plates on Arkansas.
The disappointing thing about battleships turning turtle is that this does rather mean that the interesting stuff is squashed underneath. However, Arkansas lies slightly on her starboard side (so her port side is sticking up in the air - it's confusing when everything is upside down!) and this means you can get access to all the stuff on the port side. The best bits of the Arkansas are the 12-inch guns of 2-turret (1 being the forward turret, 2 being the turret behind) that are sticking out to the side.
You can get a good shot of the ends of the barrels.
and if you scoot underneath them you can get
a nice shot looking down the barrels out into open water.
This shot clearly shows the dreadnought design of the hull. If you travel forward form the 10 inch guns you come to the bow (derrr.) and this is one of the most impressive bows in the world of which to take a photo as it is quite sleek (especially for an old dreadnought, and lying at a jaunty angle. The anchor chains also drape from the hull down to the seafloor.
Arkansas bow.
There are also lots of anti-aircraft guns and stuff bristling along the edge of the deck as well.
Arkansas gun site.
All in all a most satisfying dive!
Next up, we'll do the Carlisle. She is the only non "warship" that you dive in Bikini. Officially she is a 426ft Gilliam-class attack transport, which is basically a freighter that is heavily armed (and armoured) and thus can be used for defensive work and/or minor offensive work (but not against a destroyer, cruiser or battleship!) This gave attack transports a dual role of supply ship and escort vessel on convoys.
USS Carlisle.
Carlisle sits upright on the lagoon floor, and her bow area is frequented by a large school of jacks. I saw them swirling rapidly along the edge of the hull, a vortex of perhaps 500 silvery jacks. The holds of Carlisle contain plenty of interesting stuff - plane engines & props, shells, ammo belts and rows of small ships' propellers.
Plane engines in the forward hold.
A gentle wallop with my torch
You can find a loo situated amidships, sitting on one of the old gun mounts. Always amusing for photographers to take a picture of a diver sitting on it!!!
The effects of decompression sickness, perhaps?
If you have dived Truk lagoon this ship is similar to what you will have seen there - a freighter full of war supplies, but American this time, not Japanese!
The Anderson. She is a Sims-class destroyer of 2,300 tons displacement, 348ft in length but only 35ft in beam. She was thus very sleek and very fast. She produced an incredible 50,000bhp (that's a lot of power for a 2,300 ton ship!) and was capable of a stonking 37 knots.
USS Anderson.
Her primary roll was as a carrier escort. It is sad - but at the same time amusing - to note that Anderson was not very good at her job:
Lexington - sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea
Yorktown - sunk at the Battle of Midway
Hornet - sunk at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons
Wasp - sunk at the Battle of Gaudalcanal
Hmmm there seems to be a theme running through this, dont you think! 4 carriers lost in 4 separate battles, all escorted by the Anderson. No wonder they decided to sink her at Bikini - perhaps she was jinxed!!!!
Anderson was very close to Able Blast Ground Zero and in fact was one of the few ships to sink in that blast. Navy divers reported her lying upright on an even keel after the Able blast. However, she is actually lying on her port side, so one can only assume that the shock wave from Baker knocked her over on her side. Either that or the divers were narked!
Like all good destroyers she bristles with boys toys: anti-aircraft guns, depth charge racks & projectors (racks drop them off the back of the boat, projectors hurl them out to the sides), 2 sets of torpedo tubes and 4 5-inch manin guns. In this picture you can see the 2 sets ot torpedo tubes just astern of the funnel.
Lying on her side as she does gives you an interesting perspective on the ship. Being quite small you can do the whole beast in one dive, starting at the stern. She has fabulous twin props that are great for fotos.
Prop on the Anderson.
From there you move rounbd to the stern deck and move forward, with the wreck on your right. As you bumble along you pass depth charge racks, guns, guns,
more guns,
the first set of torpedo tubes, which stick up in the air and look very sexy indeed.
Torpedo tubes. Yeah, OK, my sticky-up-in-the-air pictures did not come out
You then come to the bridge which has great portholes in it, and is always full of glassfish
Bridge portholes.
and then a blast guage tower (used during the nuclear tests),
Now, what shall I keep? The video camera or the bottle?
then more guns and yet more guns and then to the bow. The boat rests ona sandy bottom, with a small reef bnext to it. The ambient light and the way the sand curls down under the bow make it probably the most impressive of all the wrecks in Bikini to photograph, espcially as it is not so big that you have to be 100ft away from it. A diver above gives an excellent perspective.
Anderson bow
Anderson is a wonderful taster for the Lamson, another destroyer at Bikini. But more on her later!
Anyway, that's it for the moment. In the next exciting installment, the submarine USS Apogon and destoryer USS Lamson .
Gimme a few days allrighty?!
So, I think the best thing for me to do is detail each boat, as you do do more than one dive on some boats.
I'll start with the Arkansas, as it's big and it's American!
Arkansas was a Wyoming-class dreadnought battleship built prior to WW1 and was 562ft in length, had a beam of 106ft and weighed 26,000 tons. She had an illustrious career during WW2, on Atlantic convoy duty, during the D-Day landings and the invasion of S France. She moved to the Pacific in late 1944 and was used to shuttle US troops back across the Pacific after the Japanese surrender. By then she was totally obsolete (like all battleships) and was assigned to the tests at Bikini.
USS Arkansas as she was in the good old days.
Like all good battleships, she turned turtle on the way down, and lies upside, the bottom of her keel resting in about 100ft of water. The first thing you notice as you descend to the ship is that the hull plates and ribs have been severely mangled in. Huge ripples run down the hull which presumably were caused by the huge wave created by the Baker blast.
Damaged hull plates on Arkansas.
The disappointing thing about battleships turning turtle is that this does rather mean that the interesting stuff is squashed underneath. However, Arkansas lies slightly on her starboard side (so her port side is sticking up in the air - it's confusing when everything is upside down!) and this means you can get access to all the stuff on the port side. The best bits of the Arkansas are the 12-inch guns of 2-turret (1 being the forward turret, 2 being the turret behind) that are sticking out to the side.
You can get a good shot of the ends of the barrels.
and if you scoot underneath them you can get
a nice shot looking down the barrels out into open water.
This shot clearly shows the dreadnought design of the hull. If you travel forward form the 10 inch guns you come to the bow (derrr.) and this is one of the most impressive bows in the world of which to take a photo as it is quite sleek (especially for an old dreadnought, and lying at a jaunty angle. The anchor chains also drape from the hull down to the seafloor.
Arkansas bow.
There are also lots of anti-aircraft guns and stuff bristling along the edge of the deck as well.
Arkansas gun site.
All in all a most satisfying dive!
Next up, we'll do the Carlisle. She is the only non "warship" that you dive in Bikini. Officially she is a 426ft Gilliam-class attack transport, which is basically a freighter that is heavily armed (and armoured) and thus can be used for defensive work and/or minor offensive work (but not against a destroyer, cruiser or battleship!) This gave attack transports a dual role of supply ship and escort vessel on convoys.
USS Carlisle.
Carlisle sits upright on the lagoon floor, and her bow area is frequented by a large school of jacks. I saw them swirling rapidly along the edge of the hull, a vortex of perhaps 500 silvery jacks. The holds of Carlisle contain plenty of interesting stuff - plane engines & props, shells, ammo belts and rows of small ships' propellers.
Plane engines in the forward hold.
A gentle wallop with my torch
You can find a loo situated amidships, sitting on one of the old gun mounts. Always amusing for photographers to take a picture of a diver sitting on it!!!
The effects of decompression sickness, perhaps?
If you have dived Truk lagoon this ship is similar to what you will have seen there - a freighter full of war supplies, but American this time, not Japanese!
The Anderson. She is a Sims-class destroyer of 2,300 tons displacement, 348ft in length but only 35ft in beam. She was thus very sleek and very fast. She produced an incredible 50,000bhp (that's a lot of power for a 2,300 ton ship!) and was capable of a stonking 37 knots.
USS Anderson.
Her primary roll was as a carrier escort. It is sad - but at the same time amusing - to note that Anderson was not very good at her job:
Lexington - sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea
Yorktown - sunk at the Battle of Midway
Hornet - sunk at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons
Wasp - sunk at the Battle of Gaudalcanal
Hmmm there seems to be a theme running through this, dont you think! 4 carriers lost in 4 separate battles, all escorted by the Anderson. No wonder they decided to sink her at Bikini - perhaps she was jinxed!!!!
Anderson was very close to Able Blast Ground Zero and in fact was one of the few ships to sink in that blast. Navy divers reported her lying upright on an even keel after the Able blast. However, she is actually lying on her port side, so one can only assume that the shock wave from Baker knocked her over on her side. Either that or the divers were narked!
Like all good destroyers she bristles with boys toys: anti-aircraft guns, depth charge racks & projectors (racks drop them off the back of the boat, projectors hurl them out to the sides), 2 sets of torpedo tubes and 4 5-inch manin guns. In this picture you can see the 2 sets ot torpedo tubes just astern of the funnel.
Lying on her side as she does gives you an interesting perspective on the ship. Being quite small you can do the whole beast in one dive, starting at the stern. She has fabulous twin props that are great for fotos.
Prop on the Anderson.
From there you move rounbd to the stern deck and move forward, with the wreck on your right. As you bumble along you pass depth charge racks, guns, guns,
more guns,
the first set of torpedo tubes, which stick up in the air and look very sexy indeed.
Torpedo tubes. Yeah, OK, my sticky-up-in-the-air pictures did not come out
You then come to the bridge which has great portholes in it, and is always full of glassfish
Bridge portholes.
and then a blast guage tower (used during the nuclear tests),
Now, what shall I keep? The video camera or the bottle?
then more guns and yet more guns and then to the bow. The boat rests ona sandy bottom, with a small reef bnext to it. The ambient light and the way the sand curls down under the bow make it probably the most impressive of all the wrecks in Bikini to photograph, espcially as it is not so big that you have to be 100ft away from it. A diver above gives an excellent perspective.
Anderson bow
Anderson is a wonderful taster for the Lamson, another destroyer at Bikini. But more on her later!
Anyway, that's it for the moment. In the next exciting installment, the submarine USS Apogon and destoryer USS Lamson .
Gimme a few days allrighty?!
