My I-photo Blog: 08/01/2009

USS Arizona Memorial

(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

The USS Arizona Memorial, located at Pearl Harbor in the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors killed on the USS Arizona during the Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 by Japanese imperial forces and commemorates the events of that day. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the island of Oʻahu was the action that led to United States involvement in World War II.

The memorial, dedicated in 1962 and visited by more than one million people annually,[1] spans the sunken hull of the battleship without touching it. Since it opened in 1980, the National Park Service has operated the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center associated with the memorial. Historical information about the attack, boat access to the memorial, and general visitor services are available at the center. The sunken remains of the battleship were declared a National Historic Landmark on 5 May 1989. (Wikipedia)

USS Arizona (BB-39)

USS Arizona (BB-39) was a Pennsylvania-class battleship of the United States Navy. The vessel was the first to be named "Arizona" specifically in honor of the 48th state. She was commissioned in 1916 and served stateside during World War I. Arizona is best known for her cataclysmic and dramatic sinking, with the loss of 1,177 lives, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the event that brought about US involvement in World War II. The wreck was not salvaged, and continues to lie at the floor of the harbor. It is the site of a memorial to those who perished on that day.

On 4 March 1913, Congress authorized the construction of Arizona, the second and last of the Pennsylvania class of "super-dreadnought" battleships. Her keel was laid at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 16 March 1914. She was launched on 19 June 1915, sponsored by Miss Esther Ross—daughter of a prominent Arizona pioneer, Mr. W.W. Ross of Prescott, Arizona. Her remaining machinery was installed, which included new Parson turbines,[1] and she was then commissioned at her builder's yard on 17 October 1916, Captain John D. McDonald in command. (Wikipedia)

As of 2009, 67 years after the explosion that destroyed Arizona, oil leaks from the hull still rise to the surface of the water. Arizona continues to leak about a quart (0.95 L) of oil per day into the harbor. Survivors from the crew say that the oil will continue to leak until the last survivor dies. Many of the survivors have arranged for their ashes to be placed in the ship, among their fallen comrades, upon their death and cremation. The Navy, in conjunction with the National Park Service, has recently overseen a comprehensive computerized mapping of the hull, being careful to honor its role as a war grave. The Navy is considering non-intrusive means of abating the continued leakage of oil to avoid the further environmental degradation of the harbor. (Wikipedia)

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor is a harbor on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II. (Wikipedia)

USS Missouri (BB-63), now a museum ship, docked at Pearl Harbor

History:
Pearl Harbor was originally an extensive, shallow embayment called Wai Momi (meaning "harbor of pearl") or Pu'uloa by the Hawaiians. Pu'uloa was regarded as the home of the shark goddess Ka'ahupahau and her brother (or son) Kahi'uka In Hawaiian legends. Keaunui, the head of the powerful is celebrated. It is attributed the honour of having cut a navigable channel near the present Puuloa saltworks, by which the great estuary, now known as "Pearl River," was in all subsequent ages rendered accessible to navigation. Making due allowance for legendary amplification of a known fact, the estuary doubtless had an outlet for its waters where the present gap is; but the legend is probably correct in giving Keaunui the credit of having widened it and deepened it, so as to admit the passage of canoes, and even larger vessels, in and out of the Pearl River estuary. The harbor was teeming with pearl-producing oysters until the late 1800s. (Wikipedia)