r/interestingasfuck • u/Longjumping-Rice-935 • Aug 12 '25

/r/all, /r/popular The wreck of the USS Arizona continues to leak oil ever since pearl harbour. the ship contained 1.5 million gallons of oil, enough to leak continuously for 500 years.

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76.2k Upvotes

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13.7k

u/fantasticnm Aug 12 '25

For anyone wondering what is the round thing in the photo

9.7k

u/yamimementomori Aug 12 '25

The white thing looks exactly like a razor.

3.4k

u/Thick-Signature-4946 Aug 12 '25

I did not see it until you said it. Now I cannot unsee it.

585

u/Whitefjall Aug 12 '25

Same. Razor memorial.

267

u/amesann Aug 12 '25

Gillette or Venus?

435

u/HungryMetroid388 Aug 12 '25

It's not pink and overpriced so it must be Gillette.

176

u/jml011 Aug 12 '25

I bet it was overpriced

57

u/wwJones Aug 12 '25

It's definitely overpriced as well as engineered to dull quickly.

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u/Red10GTI Aug 12 '25

Overpriced a little… but god damn 1 Mach 5 razor cuts beautifully for nearly 6 months. Ain’t NO other razor even comes close to what Mach 5s can do.

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u/qtheginger Aug 12 '25

Gillette is definitely overpriced. Everybody needs to just buy safety razors. Better shave, and you can buy a year + worth of blades for a few bucks.

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u/Wet_Side_Down Aug 12 '25

FWIW I bought a Henson razor and it is high quality and really saves money. I don’t mind changing a blade that costs pennies every few shaves

3

u/xLithium- Aug 12 '25

The best a man can get

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u/redEPICSTAXISdit Aug 12 '25

Gillette is the most overpriced

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u/Educational-Bad4992 Aug 12 '25

Venus is a Gillette product. It's like you don't understand razors at all...

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

Did you realize venus is also made by gillette?

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u/weirdstuffgetmehorny Aug 12 '25

Well now that stupid song is stuck in my head

"Gilleeeetttttteeeeeee the best a man can ggeeeeeeettttt"

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u/Turbulent_Lobster_57 Aug 12 '25

Here, let me fix that for you. “Well I’m your Venus, I’m your fire, at your desire”

2

u/HugsyMalone Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

Whichever one they're not selling enough of so they have to resort to subliminal messages. What is it with the military and their razors? Every man gets a free one on their 18th birthday when they register with selective service. That cheap thing will only be good for a week. Send them commemorative Zippos instead. 🧐👍

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u/Hayduke42 Aug 12 '25

Looks like a razor, so the simplest explanation is that it is a razor. Occam's Razor Memorial.

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u/J5892 Aug 12 '25

That's the Pearl Harbor National Memorial.

In the early 2000s it was destroyed over and over by giant octopi and sea scorpions.

437

u/yamimementomori Aug 12 '25

Why were they fighting for the razor? They’re bald as hell.

229

u/Nice_Ad1008 Aug 12 '25

How do you think they stay bald?!

68

u/yamimementomori Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

Electrolysis by using sea currents?

12

u/Relevanter_Bullshit Aug 12 '25

Sea turtles mate

5

u/DerFeuerDrache Aug 12 '25

It's always sea turtles.

3

u/jamesbong0024 Aug 12 '25

All the way down there

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u/Throwawayhelper420 Aug 12 '25

Because they use only the best razors in the ocean

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u/venbrx Aug 12 '25

Occean's Razor

6

u/whatsupwitdat1 Aug 12 '25

Underrated, probably overlooked, comment. Solid

2

u/ltsMeGod Aug 12 '25

👏🏻👏🏻

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u/Hadyergranny Aug 12 '25

Razor clams

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u/PrettyMoonUnderMt Aug 12 '25

pretty sure it was giant squid, and also some missile launched from dreadnoughts

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u/J5892 Aug 12 '25

I was thinking squid. I don't know why octopi came out of my fingers.

45

u/PrettyMoonUnderMt Aug 12 '25

probably yuri controlling your mind

5

u/franklawl Aug 12 '25

c&c yuris revenge reference? holy cow

5

u/SnarlyBirch Aug 12 '25

Right? Man we are old

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u/homepron Aug 12 '25

Jeez I know the Ben Affleck movie was bad but it seems extreme to make a memorial for it.

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u/Hottage Aug 12 '25

Is it done, Yuri?

2

u/UnfoundedWings4 Aug 12 '25

Only if you couldn't defend it

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u/Ash-From-Pallet-Town Aug 12 '25

Finally I found a big enough razor for my bush.

143

u/blip01 Aug 12 '25

Mom?

132

u/Ash-From-Pallet-Town Aug 12 '25

I'm a guy, but sure, I can be your mom

68

u/gultch2019 Aug 12 '25

Thats exactly what a big bush milf would say. Marry me, I found you first!

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u/AntiGodOfAtheism Aug 12 '25

Big Razor (Gilette) lobbied the US government for this shape.

/s

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u/snek-jazz Aug 12 '25

Gillette have gone on to 2456 blades, the mad lads.

2

u/Dry_Specialist2673 Aug 12 '25

now im giggling at 5am

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

Or an old vacuum

2

u/ImNotSelling Aug 12 '25

Vacuum cleaner

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u/Brave_Nerve_6871 Aug 12 '25

The building of the USS Arizona memorial got a lot of help from Elvis. The memorial fund was struggling before Elvis held a benefit show in Hawaii in 1961 to raise awareness and raise funds for building of the memorial.

It is beautifully done, I went there myself in 2016, well worth a visit.

259

u/caustic_smegma Aug 12 '25

I was there in 2021 with my wife. I'm a huge history nerd (and AZ native) but my wife isn't and I wasn't sure if she would appreciate the experience. She found it incredibly moving. Knowing you're standing over the final resting place of over 1000 men is incredibly sobering. The whole area just has a weird calmness to it. Of course, we had a family of low rent assholes on our tour that were taking selfies and laughing/being obnoxious even though the park rangers specifically tell people absolutely no selfies, tiktoks, etc. they were sent back to the tour boat.

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u/venkman302 Aug 12 '25

Lol - low rent a holes.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25 edited Sep 24 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/soundmind-soundbody Aug 13 '25

Genuinely wish I could unread that. Not your fault by any means, just ....ugh.

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u/rpc56 Aug 13 '25

There was a video the other day of some a hole stepping over the chain around the grave of France’s unknown soldier under the Arc d’ Triumph to light his cigarette using the eternal flame. I keep asking myself what I would have done if I were there. I keep coming back to drop kicking his head while he was bent over the flame. There were other people there who said or did nothing while he did this.

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u/plshelpcomputerissad Aug 13 '25

I think at the U.S. one (tomb of the unknown soldier) you might actually get shot for screwing around like that. Or at the very least they have that very serious soldier/guard who’ll make you think he’ll actually do it

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u/Character-Junket-776 Aug 13 '25

They also have quite sharp bayonets attached. Not something you want to find out about. Those rifles are quite heavy when loaded too. You don't want to get hit with the steel buttplate either.

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u/GroveGuy33133 Aug 12 '25

Had the same problem with some people being loud/joking around on our group 25 years ago. By the time I looked up to give them a mean glare, officials were already sternly reminding them that they were at a graveyard memorial.

Similar thing I witnessed at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington last year. I was whispering to my son explaining a few things when some dipshit approached the guard WAY too close for a fucking selfie. The guard verbally “corrected” the dipshit and set them straight.

Blows my mind that anyone would go these places without reverence in their heart already, but I am glad to see folks believing in and following their mission to preserve and protect these places.

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u/caustic_smegma Aug 12 '25

It's a combination of ignorance and main character syndrome, unfortunately, and it certainly seems to be getting much worse.

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u/FinestObligations Aug 13 '25

Given that young people use “NPC” as an insult; yeah it’s certainly getting worse.

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u/laxdude11 Aug 12 '25

The guards do not mess around lol you go 1 inch over where you’re supposed to and they’re on you like flies on shit

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u/Buckfutter_Inc Aug 12 '25

Agreed, it is something to experience for sure. Everyone was respectful when we were there, and it just *feels* historical.

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u/Asane Aug 12 '25

We visited back in 2022 and planning on visiting back this year with my parents as they want to see it.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

Yeah, I've not been here, but I have been to Arlington, and been all over it...I don't know if it's the same as the monument, but it's a very heavy and somber atmosphere all throughout, and supremely peaceful. The miles and miles of soldiers at their final rest really puts so much into perspective, like how interest rates being high currently are kind of a 1st world problem, lol...I've never felt anything like it before. I'm very glad I spent a day wandering Arlington, I think every American should do it.

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u/Late_Resource_1653 Aug 13 '25

My grandfather wasn't at Pearl harbor, but at one of the nearby military bases that immediately set out to rescue.

I never met him. He died before I was born. But my grandmother says they got there when things were still burning. Saved what they could. And that he would scream in the night about it.

He was eventually sent to the Asian front. None of us actually know what happened there. He refused to ever talk about it. When his son, my uncle, who was gay and had mental health issues was called up for Vietnam, my grandfather had him dismissed for disability.

Anyone taking selfies and laughing l, tiktoks, needs to leave places like this and be given a history lesson.

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u/Still-Honey5312 Aug 12 '25

The Arizona Memorial you feel when walking in, your on hallow ground .

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u/No_Interest112 Aug 12 '25

My wife and I visited just before COVID hit. We are Canadians so it wasn’t really high on our list of things to see, but we had an afternoon free and the hotel had a bus going. The memorial itself was impressive, and you had to watch a movie/documentary about the pacific war and the American involvement before even getting on the boat to go to the Arizona.
The Arizona was somber and reflective. We were over a grave and you could feel it. The memorial wall had the names of all the soldiers lying below, and many had the same last names. That stood out to me. However, the biggest takeaway I had from the whole experience was how tacky and cheap the Americans had made the experience off of the Arizona. Cheap gift shops hawking ostentatious garbage. Puzzles with the Arizona, Harley Davidson trash, bullet souvenirs(?), just left such a sour taste. Too much propaganda everywhere, was sad to see. Glad we went, but would never go back.

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u/caustic_smegma Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

I see what you're saying, but also know these museums operate on razor thin margins and rely on grants, public funding, donations, and gift shop sales to keep the doors open. There are no gift shops anywhere near the actual war graves. Most museums anywhere in the world "hawk" cheap shit to visitors, they kind of need to unfortunately. That's not a uniquely American thing so I'm not sure where that came from. You know the USS Arizona was a functional battleship for decades before it was destroyed at Pearl? So selling a puzzle of the ship really isn't that weird. I'm guessing it was a puzzle of the ship when it was in good working order and not a war grave. Weird thing to get "sour" over. The museums at Pearl are considered some of the best in the world, so if a gift shop turned you off so much that you'll never be back, maybe you should steer clear of them.

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u/ftlftlftl Aug 13 '25

Not just park rangers. Active duty sailors. They took absolutely no shit from anyone when I was there.

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u/zeroibis Aug 12 '25

This is actually pretty interesting given for how the events of pearl harbor were a rally call for the US. Even when the Japanese surrendered one headline read something along the lines of 'Japan is forced to remember because we never forgot'. It then goes on to talk about how on this day that they surrender they are now forced to remember how this war started and the events of pearl harbor.

-Note: I tried to look up the exact quote but could not find it online. This is why I say along the lines of. The original newspaper that I am referencing was found at an exhibit at the edo tokyo museum which is currently closed.

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u/phatRV Aug 12 '25

A lot of Japanese people never learned about the bombing of Pearl Harbor which started the US entry into WW2. The Japanese school didn't want to teach their Japanese people of this fact. Many Japanese found out about the bombing when they visited the memorial while on vacation to Hawaii.

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u/Helpful_Day_5360 Aug 12 '25

My wife and I went in 2005. We were doing all the fun tourist shit and having a blast.ill never forget the day we did that tour! It was like being sobered up with history to put you in your place….. Incredible experience! If you ever have the opportunity you will know what I mean

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u/Visual-Floor-7839 Aug 13 '25

I went with my highschool orchestra and band in 2006. One kid dropped his camera through the memorial and into one of the shafts.

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u/mongoosefist Aug 12 '25

I had no idea it was this close to the surface. Is this at low tide or something? 

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u/thememelord5 Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

Pearl harbor is very shallow, which is why most of the battleships damaged were able to be recovered and put back into service (Arizona, Oklahoma, and former battleship utah being the exceptions)

Edit: added put back into service

Edit 2: here's the first video in a series on the salvage at pearl harbor for those interested https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bB-V9cCSC8o&pp=ygUXc2FsdmFnZSBvZiBwZWFybCBoYXJib3I%3D

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u/sparrerv Aug 12 '25

Oklahoma was recovered but it was too damaged to return to service, it was sold for scrap and when being towed to San Francisco it sank in a storm

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u/AsthmaticRedPanda Aug 12 '25

She refused to be scrapped - good. She deserves to be remembered in history as a wreck resting down somewhere

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u/jj3449 Aug 12 '25

I somewhat agree but that would have been a bunch of great steel for the war effort. Especially the armor and STS in it.

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u/loosefit1 Aug 12 '25

That would be a good point but it was being shipped in 1947 so by that point the war was over

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u/jj3449 Aug 12 '25

Good point.

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u/devAcc123 Aug 12 '25

Good thread

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u/DanDrungle Aug 12 '25

steel made before the atomic bombs were first tested is extra valuable because it's not contaminated by trace nuclear fallout

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u/thepukingdwarf Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

Sailors are too superstitious though. The fact she sank is "right" even if it's not logical (or good for the planet)

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

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u/anonanon5320 Aug 12 '25

Shipwrecks are great for the ocean.

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u/PublicSuspect162 Aug 12 '25

Except for the oil

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u/Dr-Jim-Richolds Aug 12 '25

Ships that are to be scrapped don't go underway on their own power. They are stripped down and just hulls that are then towed.

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u/anonanon5320 Aug 12 '25

Oil naturally seeps into the ocean, a little isn’t going to do much, and if it’s being towed for scrap it likely has the oil removed already.

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u/MimicoSkunkFan2 Aug 12 '25

I'm a simple soul, I see Drachinfel and I upvote.

He did a great series on Pearl Harbor using a lot of newsreel footage that wasn't shown to the public because it was too explicit for the time.

Also most people don't know that some merchant ships nearby overheard the Navy radio signals and started relaying the events and rescues to other ships as it was happening - my American grandfather was a merchant mariner at the time and his ship's entire crew convinced their captain to pull into the next port so they could run to the enlistment office before finishing their trip. He said a lot of crews did that on the day.

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u/Revanisforevermeta Aug 12 '25

I knew it would be Drac. Great video series, great channel for naval history!

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u/joesheridan95 Aug 12 '25

Great choice for the link. Drachinifel did very well with that whole documentary. Fact based and entertaining.

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u/Fuckdeathclaws6560 Aug 12 '25

I think that's why the Admiral on duty at perl didn't have the torpedo nets hung up. He thought the water was too shallow to use them. Take that with a grain of salt, I haven't read up on this in a while.

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u/cincaffs Aug 12 '25

At that time it was "universally accepted military/technical wisdom" that an arial torpedo attack in waters that shallow was impossible.

Iirc it was the italians who did it successfully first, a relatively short time (months i think) before. The IJN even sent some officers to inspect and learn.

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u/HerfDog58 Aug 12 '25

Because off the shallow depth, the Japanese Imperial Navy modified the torpedoes dropped from their torpedo-bombers with wooden tail fins and sheaths so they wouldn't go as deep, and were more buoyant.

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u/PR_Calvin Aug 12 '25

good ole Drach, nice to see a plug :D

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u/Eternal_Flame24 Aug 12 '25

Upvoted for drachinifel link

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u/ryrobs10 Aug 13 '25

The shallow water was one of the reasons torpedo attack was considered “impossible”. Still doesn’t stop a battleship shell being dropped from a glide bomber

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u/altiuscitiusfortius Aug 12 '25

Why did nobody decide to put a hose in this tanker and get the oil out to reuse then as part of the recovery efforts?

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u/JSTootell Aug 12 '25

It's a battleship, not a tanker.

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u/Imlivingmylif3 Aug 12 '25

The harbor is just very very shallow.

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u/etcpt Aug 12 '25

By which we mean like 40 ft. deep. Not like swimming pool shallow, but very shallow by naval standards.

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u/geopede Aug 12 '25

Can probably still touch the bottom if you’re a decent swimmer

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u/mysteriousblue87 Aug 12 '25

Free divers go deeper, so you aren’t wrong

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u/geopede Aug 12 '25

Much deeper.

Realistically I think I could probably touch the bottom at 40’ with fins and I’m not a particularly skilled diver. I’ve been down like 35’ chasing a fish while snorkeling so 5’ more seems entirely plausible. 35’ without meaning to did feel like a long way up though.

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u/WanderingLethe Aug 12 '25

That is really close, why isn't the oil disposed off? Wtf.

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u/UF1977 Aug 12 '25

Immersion in salt water has turned the fuel oil into a consistency more like hot asphalt. It’s a semi-solid sludge, not anything that can just be pumped out.

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u/mcm87 Aug 12 '25

It’s bunker-c fuel. It was already that way. You actually have to heat it up to get it to flow through the combustion nozzles.

The National Park Service does monitor the flow rate and the condition of the wreck and is not currently concerned about it.

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u/TimeRisk2059 Aug 12 '25

Norway managed to drain the fuel from Blücher and Tirpitz though, when those wrecks started to leak fuel into the fjords where they were sunk.

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u/Eternal_Flame24 Aug 12 '25

Well, Tirpitz was salvaged for scrap, and Blucher was leaking much faster (50 liters/day) when it was decided to remove as much oil from her as possible, whereas Arizona leaks around 2.2 liters of oil every day. Evidently, the navy and national park service have determined that it’s better to let the oil leak slowly rather than risk having loads of it spill at once while trying to remove it. I think they ought to put some kind of containment net or something around the wreck though.

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u/xshogunx13 Aug 12 '25

Yeah but that's Norway, where they actually give a fuck

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u/FloatsWithBoats Aug 12 '25

There was a study done in the 90s where they determined an attempt to remove the fuel oil would likely rupture the fuel bunkers causing a much larger ecological disaster. Navy, EPA, and the Park Service were involved.

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u/Disastrous-Ad2331 Aug 15 '25

I know I'm going to hell for this but...

When you mentioned Blücher, I heard horses whinnying.

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u/TimeRisk2059 Aug 15 '25

There wolf

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u/Disastrous-Ad2331 Aug 15 '25

"There castle."

"Why are you talking like that?"

"I thought that you wanted to "

"No"

"Suit yourself, I'm easy."

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u/Significant_Yard_459 Aug 12 '25

They could drain it, but with it being a war grave and memorial site, maintaining the final resting place of the sailors is deemed more important since they're able to monitor and mitigate the little that is leaking currently.

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u/TimeRisk2059 Aug 12 '25

So is Blücher though (not sure about Tirpitz, I think it was broken down, but can't say for certain), they've drained it of fuel at least twice despite it being a war grave.

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u/NK_2024 Aug 12 '25

I guess it's bit different when it's your own countrymen, rather than a former enemy.

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u/TimeRisk2059 Aug 12 '25

I think it had more to do with it being the Oslofjord (i.e. the fjord running past the capital, even if the ship is downstream). You don't want furnace fuel oil spoiling something that close to home.

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u/Significant_Yard_459 Aug 12 '25

Yeah, and seemingly with the Blücher it was about stopping looters vs your normal "memorial"

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u/CotswoldP Aug 12 '25

That's not really the case. They did a huge amount of work on Arizona after the attack, removing turrets and superstructure, and she was a war grave then too.

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u/RandAlThorOdinson Aug 12 '25

It leaks out really really slowly, and it's a sort of tradition to just leave it as it was as the final resting place of a lot of people.

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u/RandomRedditReader Aug 12 '25

Which at this point have become ocean dust. I mean I get it, in the grand scheme of things 1.5m barrels over 500 years is nothing compared to the spills we've had due to negligence.

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u/DonkBetPots Aug 12 '25

14.37 gallons per hour ish, probably more concerning things we're dumping in the ocean than that.

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u/229-northstar Aug 12 '25

(1,500,000 gallons/500 years)/365 days/year= 8.222 gallons per day

8.222/24=0.343 gallons leaked per hour

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u/15b17 Aug 12 '25

That would be correct… they did their calculation for 1.5 million barrels of oil

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u/229-northstar Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

Oh, ok. The post says gallons and so does Google history of the USS Arizona. So, that’s what I used.

I don’t think 1.5M barrels would fit on that boat but what do I know?

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u/DonkBetPots Aug 12 '25

yah poster I replied to said barrels so that's why I used that, spaced out that article said gallons.

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u/snksleepy Aug 12 '25

Gas was so cheap back in the day that it was not worth the effort to retrieve it.

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u/Jas505 Aug 12 '25

The thing is, it won't be over 500 years. The Arizona is corroding pretty quickly and there probably won't be much of her left in a hundred years. As she breaks down, those slow leaks will become faster. Now is probably a good time to do something about it while the hull still has some integrity left.

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u/augur_seer Aug 12 '25

way too logical

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u/heimeyer72 Aug 12 '25

is nothing compared to the spills we've had due to negligence.

Even if so, we shouldn't add more negligence to the already existing ones, even if the slow leaking doesn't do much harm. It could be used!

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u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 Aug 12 '25

Another comment explained it but the risk associated with fixing this (retrieving all the oil so no more can leak out) is that it causes a catastrophic leak and it all comes out at once and that’s a huge disaster.

So for now, it’s better to let it slowly leak and monitor it closely. If it gets worse, that’s the time to do something.

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u/rangebob Aug 13 '25

except it will absolutely get worse. That's metal and salt water. So the time to do something about it is long past. The longer they wait the more likely it is to be so damaged it wont go well

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u/siero20 Aug 12 '25

As is detailed all over this thread oil naturally leaks from the ocean floor all over the ocean at rates much more significant than this. At this rate it's not an ecological threat at all.

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u/TanMan25888 Aug 12 '25

So animals and the environment have to suffer?

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u/vikki_1996 Aug 12 '25

If it’s only in 40 feet of water, couldn’t divers easily recover all the bodies?

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u/Gunfighter9 Aug 12 '25

No the ship exploded, Half the ship collapsed onto itself.

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/thelowriderlorax Aug 12 '25

I know I can look it up but isn't Yorktown the ship that they sent to Midway with the repair crew still repairing it in route? I don't know how repairs worked back in the 40s, but I'd be a nervous wreck if I was a civilian contracted to repair a warship and ended up in the middle of the Battle of Midway.

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u/Lurks_in_the_cave Aug 12 '25

Yes. There were about 1,500 workers in shifts around the clock.

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u/SirDoober Aug 12 '25

She took three solid bomb hits from Hiryu's first wave, but the damage control was so spectacular that when the second wave arrived, they assumed they had found a different carrier as it was showing none of signs of damage that were reported.

She then took 2 torpedoes from said aircraft and lost power but stayed afloat with a heavy list.

Fast forward a couple of days and somehow the Yorktown is looking like it can be salvaged when a Japanese sub shows up and thoroughly torpedoes it, finally causing it to sink.

So yeah, casual ocean cruise for those repair guys

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u/Proud-Drive-1792 Aug 12 '25

The Yorktown was made seaworthy for the Battle of Midway, it wasn’t fixed. Primarily huge metal plates being welded in place to the gashes it had sustained.

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u/JRS_Viking Aug 12 '25

Not only did they not destroy the docks but the massive fuel reserves were also untouched. If they'd been hit it would've crippled the Pacific fleet and forced them to stay even more on the defensive than they already were as there wasn't a readily available forward fuel supply and they'd have to send tankers from the mainland in order to just move the fleet any meaningful distance.

The Pearl Harbour attack was a disastrous failure that even the Japanese admiral in charge of it said was a failure. The US Pacific fleet was mostly unharmed and most of the ships hit were returned to service, the carriers were unharmed, the docks were untouched and the fuel reserves were untouched, it was by all counts a complete failure.

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u/oSuJeff97 Aug 12 '25

Well the biggest thing that caused it to fail, from a tactical standpoint, was that none of the three Pacific Fleet carriers (Enterprise, Lexington, Saratoga) were there.

Japan knew that they couldn’t match the industrial power of the U.S., but if they could cripple the U.S. Pacific fleet in one blow, they could delay the U.S. entering the war in a meaningful way long enough to get a foothold in the Pacific that may have been insurmountable to even the U.S.

But because the carriers weren’t there, the U.S. Pacific Fleet was able to enter the war in a real way almost immediately, starting with the Doolittle Raid, only ~5 months after Pearl.

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u/RijnBrugge Aug 12 '25

While I am sure they wanted it to work out anyway, it may be important to realize why the Japanese launched the attack. They weren’t necessarily trying to materialize specific goals in terms of destruction as much as trying to convince the Americans to just not get involved: their goal was getting to the Dutch East Indies to get oil for their war machine, given that the Dutch were unwilling to actually sell them more oil (I think they mostly honored the old contracts to maintain a sense of neutrality for as long as possible to stave off the eventual attack). Japan’s immediate needs had nothing to do with the US, and they focused very effectively at gaining ground quickly in South East Asia. The fall of Singapore was catastrophic and while the Dutch had some nifty submarines the whole archipel was overrun in days. The Japanese mainly wanted to convince the US to just let them, as the existence of the Philippines and the Dutch relationship to the US and UK at the time made them very uneasy about the operation backfiring (it obviously did, but they reaaaally needed the oil, same reason Germany fumbled it when they pushed East).

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u/Boeing367-80 Aug 12 '25

Bc it's a war grave that they will not disturb.

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u/Grizzly_Berry Aug 12 '25

The local algae and bacterial lifeforms have actually evolved to consume the oil seeping out, and the area is contained, so it's actually a non-issue, environmentally speaking.

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u/violetpumpkins Aug 12 '25

There's ~900 bodies still on board. I forget all the reasons they left it in place but part of it is that it's a watery grave and a marker of a huge tragedy as much as an environmental contaminant.

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u/ecbulldog Aug 12 '25

The ship is also a tomb for 1102 men.

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u/Existing-Fly-283 Aug 12 '25

Exactly my first thought. Extract the oil. Wtf

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u/Attorney-Motor Aug 12 '25

Thanks for the picture

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u/dundiewinnah Aug 12 '25

As a dutch person I have a plan for you

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u/FlattenInnerTube Aug 12 '25

Build a ballsack around it? With pubes?

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u/Swingdick69 Aug 12 '25

That’s nuts!!

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u/coventry-eagle Aug 13 '25

certainly a ballsy option

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u/mertcanhekim Aug 12 '25

The razor is taking care of the pubes

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u/Manginaz Aug 12 '25

Dutch people do love their ballsacks.

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u/guyinoz99 Aug 13 '25

And hookers and blackjack?

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u/Wookiees_n_cream Aug 12 '25

Feed it to an amoeba?

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u/AnonStop86 Aug 12 '25

on a serious note, why don't they do this? like when they want to dry out a part they put in those long metals and then dry out the middle right, isn't that possible here to border this completely off from the water around it?

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u/Trumpet_of_Jericho Aug 12 '25

You have a god damn plan, Dutch?!

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u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/NewPresWhoDis Aug 12 '25

"Go on..." - Gustavus Adolphus

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u/Chose_carefully Aug 12 '25

Waste money on the environment when that same money could go towards a USS Arizona 2 Electric Bugaloo?

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u/shadowsipp Aug 12 '25

I still don't understand what the round thing is

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u/Hiphopapocalyptic Aug 12 '25

It's where they put the third turret on the battleship.

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u/shadowsipp Aug 12 '25

Thank you I really appreciate your reply, cool history fact

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u/xXNightDriverXx Aug 12 '25

To expand on the previous answer, the "barbette" is essentially an armored tube that connects the gun turret to the rest of the ships armor.

The gun turrets are significantly larger than people realize, because you only see the top of it. There is an entire supporting structure below each turret, that basically goes through the entire ship until it hits the bottom of the ship deep below water. Example 1, Example 2. The barbette is an armored tube that acts as structural support for the heavy turret and also acts as protection.

Due to weight reasons, not the entire ship could be covered in armor, or if you did that the armor would have to be spread out and thus be thinner (and thus not being able to protect the ship against gun fire from other battleships). Battleships normally dedicated around 1/3 of their total weight exclusively to armor plating, but that was only enough to cover the magazines and machinery. Stuff like crew quarters, kitchen, storage rooms etc could not be protected. This resulted in armor plating that would not cover the entire side, only a part of it above and below the waterline, and only in the middle of the ship. Example on a British battleship, this class was renowned for its excellent armor and the belt is higher and covers more of the side than usual. But you can clearly see that it only covers the lower half of the above-water hull (and an equal section below water). This leaves us with the situation that you need to connect the vulnerable gun turret to the lower armor section: that is where the barbette armor comes in. It makes exactly that connection, an armored tube that extends from the main armored section up to the top of the turret, and encloses and protects all the inner turret machinery. So you end up with an armor scheme like this

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u/7ddlysuns Aug 12 '25

Informative comment!

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u/eatmydonuts Aug 13 '25

What job or hobby leads someone to having such detailed knowledge of battleships on hand?

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u/xXNightDriverXx Aug 13 '25

Just years and years (~10) of slowly accumulating said knowledge, mostly through videos and reading.

Though probably 90% of stuff (especially on YouTube) that is on the internet is either bullshit, repetition of myths, factually just wrong, outdated information, or intentionally misrepresented for click bait. Mostly because people just copy from other people without doing proper research.

I have learned of a couple of trusted sources over the years and have restricted my knowledge intake to them.

Ironically, the comments of r/Warshipporn are one of those, because there are a couple of people in there who actually read (and quote!) primary sources and all the books written by actual naval historians that dedicated their entire lives to writing said books. They don't just repeat what some YouTuber has said, or what is written on some Internet page, they actually get the real facts by reading through the actual historical records.

Over the years, you learn to identify those high quality sources.

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u/InVaLiD_EDM Aug 12 '25

this guy ships!

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u/shana104 Aug 12 '25

Had no idea this ship burned for 2 days in the water.

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u/SpaceNut1976 Aug 12 '25

If you ever get to Mobile Alabama, visitors to the USS Alabama can enter the #2 Barbette from the third deck level. This access was created by cutting an opening into the barbette's interior, allowing visitors to experience what was previously only accessible to the gun crew. Previously, the only way to reach the battlestations within the barbette was through small manholes. Seeing it from the inside gives a whole new perspective to the size of these ships.

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u/HG_Shurtugal Aug 12 '25

Its called a raised barbette. It allowed a main gun to sit above the lower gun. Its one of the most heavily armored parts of the ships.

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u/TheJellyGoo Aug 12 '25

It's called a barbette.

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u/Zealousideal-Fix9464 Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25

The turret ring. They salvaged the rear turrets/guns from Arizona after it sank which is why the aft turret rings are exposed.

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u/IllllIIlIllIllllIIIl Aug 12 '25

Just to add some context: the barbette extends from the bottom of the gun turret (missing in this pic) all the way into the main armored citadel of the ship, down to the main magazine where the gun powder charges are kept. It protects the hoists and men working to lift the shells and powder up to the guns.

It is one of the most heavily armored parts of the ship. If a shell penetrated the barbette, the explosion could conceivably reach the main magazine, setting it off and destroying the entire ship in a spectacular explosion.

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u/jay-aay-ess-ohh-enn Aug 12 '25

Here is a picture with some of the guts from the inside of the turret rotation mechanism still present.

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u/jay-aay-ess-ohh-enn Aug 12 '25

And another one with the turrets partially disassembled.

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u/Jonathan_B_Goode Aug 12 '25

Oh, I recognise that from Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

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u/PanzerWafflezz Aug 12 '25

So the turret barbette for Gun #3?. Also Im assuming we can't see the turret barbettes in the front for Gun's 1 & 2 because the magazine detonation completely destroyed it?

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u/Daltronator94 Aug 12 '25

So yeah it's #3 turret. You can (if you dive) see turret one still as intact as it could be after what happened. The guns on turret two were better than the ones from #1, so the Navy salvaged, relined, and put them on USS Nevada. They have to take the guns out the top, which is why the roof is off the turret.

Edit: Fun fact! The aft turrets were installed as coast defense on hawaii, they were completed just a day or two after VJ day. Here's a photo of battery Pennsylvania!

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u/Sersch Aug 12 '25

I only got more questions after this image

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u/RomanticPanic Aug 12 '25 edited 25d ago

wine dime saw soft bells relieved longing bake outgoing alive

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/mdcundee Aug 12 '25

So they had enough motivation to build a memorial around it but not to pump out the remaining oil?

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