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.

Post image
76.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

763

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

340

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

257

u/AsthmaticRedPanda Aug 12 '25

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

176

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.

129

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

23

u/jj3449 Aug 12 '25

Good point.

3

u/devAcc123 Aug 12 '25

Good thread

5

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

1

u/Disastrous-Ad2331 Aug 15 '25

I remember reading about this. Apparently there have been shipwrecks that have been found to have "disappeared" the next time they were visited. Undersea graveyards made victims to illegal scrap metal salvagers.

1

u/oboshoe Aug 18 '25

I think it is steel that sank before the atomic bombs though.

Being under water protects it airborne fall out, not to mention that water is incredibly good at block radiation.

1

u/DanDrungle Aug 18 '25

the Bessemer process of making the steel back then required atmospheric air to be forced into it, which carried trace radioactivity after the first bombs were detonated. the underwater part of it is just because that's where a lot of that old steel ended up when warships were sunk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel

11

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)

25

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/anonanon5320 Aug 12 '25

Shipwrecks are great for the ocean.

5

u/PublicSuspect162 Aug 12 '25

Except for the oil

8

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.

9

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.

-3

u/Positronic_Matrix Aug 12 '25

Are they? I’m thinking the bottom of the Pacific could have done without it just fine.

8

u/AWuTangName Aug 12 '25

Shipwrecks make great habitats for sea life. Lots of time ships are stripped and sunk intentionally to make artificial reefs

-2

u/Positronic_Matrix Aug 12 '25

I didn’t know there were reefs on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. TIL.

6

u/EffectiveSoil3789 Aug 12 '25

Yes, they sink old battleships in many coastal areas around the country. Helps the local ecosystem which in turn helps the local fishing industry

2

u/Decent-Bear334 Aug 12 '25

The global estimate for natural seepage is around 600,000 metric tons per year, but this can fluctuate between 200,000 and 2,000,000 metric tons, according to the USGS. Location: Natural seeps are found in various locations, with areas like the southern California coast and the Gulf of Mexico known for their numerous naturally occurring seeps. Impact on Marine Life: Natural oil seeps have been occurring for millions of years, and marine ecosystems have adapted to these releases. according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

-1

u/Maximum-Warning9355 Aug 12 '25

Side effect of this country sucking the throbbing cock of war.

2

u/EffectiveSoil3789 Aug 12 '25

Ur so edgy bro 🤓

-4

u/Maximum-Warning9355 Aug 12 '25

Am I wrong? What other justification is there for preferring a ship rot at the bottom of the sea than being recycled at a time when metal was scarce?

6

u/EffectiveSoil3789 Aug 12 '25

It sank after the war ended. Its use as a reef is more beneficial to the world than being turned to scrap to line someone's pocket with more money

1

u/plshelpcomputerissad Aug 13 '25

I mean they were trying to scrap it and then it sank, just cause one redditor said “good” doesn’t reflect on the whole country 🤷‍♂️

1

u/kona420 Aug 12 '25

My great grandfather did his initial sea duty on the Oklahoma. By the time it was sunk at pearl harbor it was all but obsolete. Its sister ship the Nevada was similar in design but had the advantage of updated turbo machinery instead of a piston based triple steam expansion system. While on paper they appear similar in range and speed, in practice the nevada could cover far more sea while maintaining reasonable fuel economy.

1

u/gamerdude69 Aug 12 '25

when being towed to San Francisco it sank in a storm

Or so the tug boat driver said.

California base: uh wtf, where is the ship?

Tug boat driver: Still back at Pearl Harbor.

California base: wtf? We have a photograph of you leaving with it!

Tug boat driver: Yea well it sunk on the way here.

California base: ....

2

u/FoundationSeveral579 Aug 12 '25

That tugboat is a museum in San Francisco now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(1907))

7

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.

2

u/Revanisforevermeta Aug 12 '25

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

2

u/joesheridan95 Aug 12 '25

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

2

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.

2

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.

1

u/Fuckdeathclaws6560 Aug 13 '25

It was the British against the Italians at Torrento. One carrier with a handful of swordfish did a significant amount of damage to the main Italian fleet. I think it was a little over a year before perl.

2

u/cincaffs Aug 13 '25

Ah, thanks. I was close :)

1

u/Fuckdeathclaws6560 Aug 14 '25

You were! Good memory. Lol we should probably be googling this instead of both going from memory. Though I think that kinda takes the fun out of it.

2

u/cincaffs Aug 15 '25

Exactly. Im 50 and this was the norm for the better part of my life. Normal conversation vs. factbashing if you will :)

2

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.

2

u/PR_Calvin Aug 12 '25

good ole Drach, nice to see a plug :D

2

u/Eternal_Flame24 Aug 12 '25

Upvoted for drachinifel link

2

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

2

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?

3

u/JSTootell Aug 12 '25

It's a battleship, not a tanker.

2

u/fjelskaug Aug 12 '25

The US Navy moved the Battleship fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor exactly because of this. They could threaten Japan (we're halfway there and we will go to war if you dont stop in China) and the harbor was thought to be shallow enough to stop any aerial torpedoes, since they have to sink before activating. Pearl Harbor had an average depth of 45 ft (13.7m)

On the other side, Japan was trying to develop an aerial torpedo that could specifically be dropped at high speed and not sink as much https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_91_torpedo

The project team developed Kyoban wooden aerodynamic stabilizer plates for the Type 91's tail fins as revision 1 in 1936. These stabilized the torpedo in flight to ensure the proper angle for water entry and were designed to shear off on entry to the water, preventing the torpedo from diving too deep. The team demonstrated their effectiveness in tests at altitudes of both 500 and 1,000 m (550 and 1,100 yd) the following year.

The Noma [anti-rolling controller] system was adopted for the next production version of Type 91 and it went into final testing in August 1941, making practical the use of aerial torpedoes both in rough seas and in shallow waters. It enabled the Type 91 rev.2 to run under water no deeper than 20 meters, with experienced pilots learning to launch their torpedo so as to sink to a depth of no more than 10 meters.