Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks | Page 50

May 5, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Libelle

Oral traditions claim that the Marshallese knew of Wake Atoll prior to contact with European navigators. The Marshallese name for the atoll was Eneen-Kio or Ane-en Kio, “Island of the kio flower.”

The atoll was a source of feathers and plumes of seabirds. Prized were the wing bones of albatross, from which tattooing chisels could be made. In addition, the rare kio flower grew on the atoll.

Bringing these items to the home atolls implied that the navigators had been able to complete the feat of finding the atoll using traditional navigation skills of stars, wave patterns and other ocean markers. (Spennemann)

Today, it is more commonly referred to as ‘Wake Island’ or ‘Wake Atoll’ (rediscovery of Wake and its naming is usually credited to Captain William Wake of the British trading schooner Prince William Henry, enroute from Port Jackson, Australia to Canton in China in 1792.) (NPS)

Wake Island, to the west of Honolulu, Hawaii, is the northernmost atoll in the Marshall Islands geological ridge and perhaps the oldest living atoll in the world.

Though it was substantially modified by the United States to create a military base before and after World War II, its major habitats are the three low coral islands consisting of shells, coral skeletons, and sand, supporting atoll vegetation adapted to arid climate. (FWS)

On the evening of March 5, 1866 under the leadership of captain Anton Tobias, Bremer Bark Libelle (Dragonfly,) bound for Hong Kong from San Francisco having last stopped in Honolulu, shipwrecked on Wake Island, one of the most remote, uninhabited atolls of the Central Pacific.

On board 16 passengers, men, women and children; also on board was a cargo valued at $300,000, including silver coins and quicksilver. (Quicksilver is otherwise known as mercury, the only metallic element that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure.)

Passengers included some famous people: Anna Bishop, one of the most famous singers and adventurous women of the time; Eugene Van Reed Miller, an American diplomat and pioneering the development of the Asian markets; Yabe Kisaboro, a Japanese officer. (Drechsler)

They were stranded on the atoll for approximately three weeks. On the futile search for drinking water, the fear of the impending end comes on. Should we really trust a tiny lifeboat and the attempt to reach the 1,300-nautical miles distant Marianas Islands? (Drechsler)

On March 27, twenty-two people crammed themselves about Libelle’s twenty-two foot longboat, piloted by Tobias’ first mate. The captain took four sailors and three Chinese on a twenty-foot gig. (Urwin)

The first mate and passengers travelled 1,300-miles and made it to Guam in 18-days. The Captains boat was never hear from again.

Salvage crews faced a similar fate as the Libelle.

“The wrecking party of the second expedition to Wake’s Island, returned by the British brig Clio last month. They sailed from Honolulu last September, in the schooner Moi Wahine, and landed on Wake’s Island, after a pleasant passage down of a month.”

“Capt English, Mr Thos Foster and nine Hawaiian divers’ were landed, with a part of their stores, and apparatus for distilling water.”

“The next day, towards night, the wind shifting, the schooner took her anchor and put out to sea, to avoid a lee shore. The vessel was never seen again afterwards.”

“The wind on the third day veered suddenly to the westward, and blew a living gale. On the Island its force was terrific, trees on ihe windward side were torn up, and carried quite across the lagoon and branches strewed the whole island. Captain Zenas Bent, the mate Mr. White, and seven Hawaiian seamen perished with the schooner.”

“The weather at Wake’s Island during the five months that the party were there, with the exception of the typhoon Thursday was pleasant and fair.”

“The lagoon abounds with fish, and from the middle of February, the birds made their appearance, and there was plenty of eggs. On these natural resources of the Island the wreckers managed to live without serious Inconvenience, while by distillation they procured as much water as they required.”

“Though it lies in the track of the China bound vessels, it is incorrectly laid down, and therefore they give it a wide berth, especially when passed on the windward side.”

“During the four months, only one vessel was communicated with – a brig that touched within two weeks after the party landed, and before they had given up hope for the return of their schooner. Several sail were seen at intervals, but they passed on without noticing the island, or the signals on the shore.”

“At length the Clio appeared, bound thither for wrecking purposes, not being aware that the Honolulu party were there. Near the Island the Clio spoke a bark, which was probably the vessel which had agreed, when leaving Honolulu for China, to touch at the Island and report upon the fate of the party, for whose safety, on account of long absence, serious fears were entertained here.”

“The Clio was chartered for Honolulu, and taking on board the party, the quicksilver and other material of the wrecked Libelle, arrived after a pleasant run of thirty days.” (Hawaiian Gazette, May 27, 1868)

“Two hundred and forty-six flasks of quicksilver, a quantity of copper, chains, anchors, &e, have been secured, which will repay the adventurers well for their enterprise.”

“The brig went there for the same purpose as the schooner, and was chartered by Mr Foster to bring the wrecked goods to this port.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 2, 1868)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Similar Ship to the Libelle

April 27, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Jones Act

It’s called the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. The Act was introduced by Senator Wesley Jones from Washington, and thus carried his name.

The Jones Act is part of the post-World War I years, when the vulnerability of US shipping to German U-boats was still fresh in the public’s mind, to maintain a “dependable” merchant fleet for the next “national emergency” – as well as promote US shipping interests. (WSJ)

Part of the act deals with ‘coastwise (or domestic) trade’ – essentially the term applies to a voyage that beginning at any point within the US and delivering a type of commercial cargo to any other point within the US. (Maritime Law Center)

Another related term is ‘cabotage’ – this initially referred to shipping along coastal routes, port to port; now it is defined as the “transportation of passengers and goods within the same country” and “law or policy protecting transporters of passengers and goods within a country from competition from foreign carriers.” (American Heritage Dictionary)

The threshold question here is whether the carriage involves a move of an item of “merchandise” from one coastwise point to another when any part of the journey by sea or by land and sea occurs by vessel. If so, the movement is coastwise trade.

Merchandise is essentially any object, whether valuable or not, whether privately owned or owned by the US Government or by a state government or subdivision thereof, other than the carrying vessel’s own equipment and consumable supplies. (King)

The Jones Act was designed to protect the domestic shipping industry. It states that only ships made in the US and flying the country’s flags can deliver goods between US ports.

That means that a cargo ship filled with goods from China can only make one stop in the US at a time. It can’t stop in Hawaii to exchange goods before heading to Los Angeles. (Bussewitz)

This limitation is not new. After passage of the Constitution in 1789, the First Congress promptly exercised the sovereign powers of the US to protect the US merchant marine fleet from foreign flag competition in its domestic maritime trades.

The new Congress imposed a tax on foreign vessels operating in the domestic trades at a rate that, as a practical matter, precluded them from competing with the domestic merchant marine in those trades. Then, in 1817, Congress expressly prohibited foreign vessels from operating in the coastwise trades.

From 1817 to 1866, the US maritime cabotage laws prohibited the transportation of merchandise “from one port of the United States to another port of the United States in a vessel belonging wholly or in part to a subject of any foreign power.” (McGeorge)

The Jones Act revamped the US shipping laws governing cabotage, ship mortgages, seamen’s personal injury claims and more in the immediate aftermath of World War I. (King)

However, the bulk of the discussion on the Act deals with coastwise trade and cabotage and the fact that the law requires that all goods traded between US ports be transported by US-owned, US-built, US-flagged and at least 75 percent US-crewed ships. (Wilson)

The US is not alone in establishing and enforcing cabotage laws. Most trading nations of the world, according to Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD,) have or have had cabotage laws of some kind. (GAO)

But folks now-a-days, especially in the Islands, are suggesting the Act is inhibiting free trade – which results in higher prices for shipping (adding to the cost of almost everything we buy in the Islands.)

According to a 2014 report by the Congressional Research Service, the cost of a US-manufactured ship is about four times that of foreign competition, and crew costs for “Jones Act–eligible” vessels are several times higher than foreign counterparts. These higher operating costs make shipping between US ports as much as three times the rate of shipping to a foreign port. (Wilson)

The “significant measurable US import restraint on services is in the transportation sector. Complete liberalization of oceanborne domestic water transport (i.e. repeal of the Jones Act) results in a $656 million net welfare gain ….”

“More conservative estimates of foreign-cost advantages under free-trade conditions change the model results, showing significantly less import penetration in the US market and smaller welfare gains. Relaxing the domestic construction requirement alone is estimated to generate $261 million in net welfare gains …” (US International Trade Commission, 2002)

Another way to say the above is that “repealing the Jones Act would lower shipping costs by about 22 percent.” (Congressional Record)

By shutting out foreign competition, the law limits shipping capacity and inflates US freight rates. Like most forms of protectionism, it benefits a few (primarily labor unions and US shipbuilders) to the detriment of many.

US islands, such as Hawaiʻi (along with the state of Alaska,) feel the effects of the Jones Act more than most localities. (Bloomberg)

Jones Act waivers were granted during Hurricane Katrina due to the significant disruption in the production and transportation of petroleum and/or refined petroleum products in the region during that emergency and the impact this had on national defense. (USCG)

Some suggest waivers are evidence of the negative impacts of the law, but also say ending the Jones Act shouldn’t be a unilateral move. Dozens of other nations have similar protectionist laws, and the US should only allow competition from ships that are registered to nations that agree to reciprocal rollbacks. (Bloomberg)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Jones Act-Bloomberg

April 22, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kahului Harbor

Before European contact, ‘Iao Stream served to irrigate lo’i in terraces that extended well up into ‘Iao Valley. Nearby is Kanaha Fishpond, which is said to have been built by Chief Kiha-Piʻilani, son of Piʻilani and brother-in-law of ʻUmi, (in about the 16th century.)

After contact, the port and town of Lāhainā was the first trading location to become established on Maui. As early as 1819, whaling lured thousands of sailors to Lāhainā. Meanwhile, even by 1837, Kahului was described as a settlement of 26-pili grass houses.

During King Kamehameha’s campaign to unify the Hawaiian Islands, the principal military encounter on Maui took place within Kahului Bay. For two days, there was constant fighting between the two sides until Kamehameha conquered them with the help of the western military expertise and firearms of his western advisors, John Young and Isaac Davis.

It was a bloody battle and by the time it was over, the beach between Kahului and Pāʻia was covered with the canoes and bodies of fallen warriors.

With the success of the first oil wells in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the whaling trade began to decline in the 1860s. It was about at this time when Maui turned to the emerging sugar industry to fill its economic void.

The isthmus between Haleakala and West Maui contained rich soils ideal for crop cultivation. Within a few short years, the region soon supported one of the largest sugar plantations in the world.

In 1876, following the Reciprocity Treaty, other Westerners gained interest in Maui’s agriculture potential, including Claus Spreckels (who came to Hawaiʻi from San Francisco.)

Spreckels leased land from the government and obtained the water rights needed to build a large irrigation ditch that provided water for crops. These events set the stage for the establishment of Maui’s first railroad system.

Rail transported cane from the fields to the harbor. Passenger cars were added to the rail system and in 1879 Thomas Hobron founded the Kahului Railroad Company, the first railroad in Hawaiʻi that provided passenger service between the population centers at Wailuku and Kahului Harbor.

Early development at Kahului Bay started in 1863 with the construction of the first western building, a warehouse near the beach.

In 1879, to facilitate the loading and unloading of goods and passengers, the first small landing was constructed in Kahului Bay. By the turn of the 19th century, Kahului supported a new customhouse, a saloon, a Chinese restaurant, and a small but growing population. (DOT)

When Bubonic Plague was noted in Kahului on February 10, 1900, “we found that the inhabitants of Chinatown, where the disease was discovered, had been moved to a detention camp some distance from the town, Chinatown destroyed by fire”. (Carmichael) The rebuilding of Kahului town coincided with the evolution of Kahului Bay into a full-scale commercial harbor. (Noda; DOT)

Kahului Commercial Harbor is a man-made port, dredged from naturally occurring Kahului Bay. As a harbor, its chief advantage was a narrow break in the coral caused by the fresh water from the Waikapu River, which emptied into Kahului Bay at one time. The break allowed ships to anchor inside the protecting reef.

The anchorage was less than ideal. It was exposed to the full force of the trade winds, there was very little deep water and a heavy surge as well. The harbor has a long history of development, including construction of breakwaters and harbor dredging dating back to the early 1900s. (DOT)

The development of the harbor began in earnest under the leadership of Henry Baldwin. During this time, the railroad and harbor depended on each other to provide service to the merchants and the sugar cane plantations. (Noda; DOT)

The harbor complex originated in 1900 when a 400-foot long east breakwater was constructed by the Kahului Railroad Company.

In 1901, the rail company purchased its first tugboat, the Leslie Baldwin, to tow lighters to and from vessels. Harbor development was initiated three-years later by Kahului Railroad Company, who was at the time a subsidiary of Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company.

“(T)he growing commercial importance of Kahului Harbor, a seaport of this Territory, in the Island of Maui, demands that adequate facilities be provided for the proper handling of freight and passenger traffic under government supervision and control”.

The Territorial Senate then addressed a Resolution, asking “That the sum of $100,000.00 be inserted in the Appropriation Bill for the purpose of defraying all costs incidental and necessary to condemn the new Claudine Wharf and moorings in Kahului Harbor, Maui, now owned and controlled by the Kahului Railroad Company, Limited”

“… whereby said wharf and moorings shall become the property of the Territory of Hawaiʻi; and also to construct a new wharf in said harbor at which large vessels may dock and load or discharge freight and passengers.” Wm T Robinson, Senator 2nd District; February 23, 1911.

Pier 1 was initially 500-feet in length and was constructed between 1921 and 1924, along with a pier shed that was 374 feet long. Subsequent construction lengthened Pier 1 to 929-feet.

The first 627-feet of Pier 2 was constructed in 1927 at the location of the old “Claudine Wharf,” and extended in 1929 by 894-feet.

The first involvement of the Army Corps of Engineers with the project came in 1913 when the east breakwater was extended 400-feet. The west breakwater was constructed to 1,950-feet in 1919, and the structures were extended to their current lengths in 1931. (DOT)

The harbor basin has been widened and deepened at various times to reduce navigational hazards due to increased traffic within the harbor and to accommodate larger vessels.

Kahului Harbor is one of nine commercial harbors (seven deep-draft and two medium-draft) found throughout the state. Because of Hawaiʻi’s geographic isolation, nearly all of its imported goods arrive via island ports.

Honolulu Harbor serves as the hub of Hawaiʻi’s commercial harbor system from where inter-island cargo distribution branches out to serve the neighbor islands. (Lots of information here is from Hawaiʻi DOT Harbors Master Plan.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Kahului_Harbor-early_years-(MasterPlan2025)

SS Claudine docked at the Claudine Wharf-(MasterPlan2025)

Claudine Wharf, Maui, Hawaii. Photo form the collection of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum-undated

Customs house-Kahului-1883

Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Co-Kahului,

Waialeale, Inter-Island Steamship. Pier 2. Kahului, Maui. Pre-World War II-hawaii-edu

Kahului_Wharf-BYUH

Ship in Kahului Harbor-(co-maui-hi-us)-1933

Kahului_Harbor-early-years-(MasterPlan2025)

Kahului_Harbor-Jackson-DAGS-(Reg1326)-1881

Kahului_Harbor-(UH_Manoa)-(t2463)-1899

April 10, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Palea and the Pinnace

Captain Cook spent the month of December beating around the eastern and southern sides of Hawaiʻi, and finally anchored in Kealakekua Bay January 17, 1779 – having returned to make repairs to a broken mast. (Alexander)

Cook’s reception this time presented a striking contrast to his last. An ominous quiet everywhere prevailed. No one greeted them. A boat being sent ashore to inquire the cause, returned with the information that the king was away, and had left the bay under a strict taboo. (Jarves)

During the king’s absence the chiefs Palea and Kanaʻina kept order among the people. After Cook’s ships had anchored, the chiefs came on board and informed Cook that Kalaniopuʻu would be back in a few days.

Another prominent man, Koa, was apparently the highest officiating priest of the place (in the absence of the high-priest who accompanied Kalaiopuʻu.) (Alexander)

“Being led into the cabin, he approached Captain Cook with great veneration, and threw over his shoulders a piece of red cloth, which he had brought along with him. Then stepping a few paces back, he made an offering of a small pig which he held in his hand, while he pronounced a discourse that lasted for a considerable time.”

“This ceremony was frequently repeated during our stay at Owhyhee, and appeared to us, from many circumstances, to be a sort of religious adoration. Their idols we found always arrayed ill red cloth in the same manner as was done to Captain Cook, and a small pig was their usual offering to the Eatooas.” (King; Cook’s Journal)

“That same afternoon Captain Cook landed and was received by Koa, Palea, and a number of priests, who conducted him to the Heiau (Hikiʻau,) just north of the Nāpoʻopoʻo village and at the foot of the Pali. Here the grand ceremony of acknowledging Cook as an incarnation of Lono, to be worshiped as such, and his installation, so to say, in the Hawaiian Pantheon took place.” (Fornander)

The next day (Friday) the damaged masts and sails and the astronomical instruments were landed at the former camp, and the friendly priests tabued the place as before.

On Saturday afternoon, matters rapidly went from bad to worse.

Some of Palea’s retainers stole a pair of tongs and a chisel from the armorer of the ‘Discovery,’ leaped into their canoe, and paddled with all haste to the shore. Several muskets were fired after them in vain, and a boat was sent in chase.

Palea, who was on board, offered to recover the stolen articles, and followed in another canoe. The thieves reached the shore first, beached their canoe, and fled inland.

Mr Edgar, the officer of the boat, undertook to seize this canoe, which belonged to Palea, who refused to give it up, protesting his innocence of the theft. A scuffle ensued between them, in which Edgar was worsted, when a sailor knocked Palea down by a heavy blow on the head with an oar.

Upon this the whole crowd of natives looking on immediately attacked the unarmed seamen with stones, and forced them to swim off to a rock at some distance.

Palea, however, soon recovered from the blow, dispersed the mob, called back the sailors, and restored the missing articles as far as he could.

The following night the large cutter of the ‘Discovery’ was stolen by Palea’s people, taken two miles north, and broken up for the sake of the iron in it. (Alexander)

“This was the same Palea who from the first had been the constant, kind, and obliging friend of Captain Cook and all the foreigners, and who, only the day before Cook’s death, had saved the crew of the pinnace of the ‘Resolution’ from being stoned to death by the natives, exasperated Palea himself.”

“The boat had been at the brutal and insolent manner in which Palea had been treated by an officer of the ‘Discovery.’”

“It was during the night after the above fracas, the night of the 13th February, that the cutter of the ‘Discovery’ was stolen from her mooring, as King himself admits…”

“… ‘by Palea’s people, very probably in revenge for the blow that had been given him,’ and not by Palea himself. The boat had been taken to Onouli, a couple of miles higher up the coast, and there broken to pieces.” (Fornander)

Captain Cook commanded Kalaniopuʻu, the king of the island, to make search for the boat, and restore it. The king could not restore it, for the natives had already broken it in pieces to obtain the nails, which were to them the articles of the greatest value.

Captain Cook came on shore with armed men to take the king on board, and to keep him there as security till the boat should be restored. (Dibble)

On February 14, 1779, Cook was killed. (The image shows a drawing of Palea by William Ellis.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

William_Ellis_–_Palea,_a_sub-chief_under_Kalaniopuu-1779

March 23, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Oklahoma

The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant unsettled lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders.

This generally involved the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chicasaw and Seminole; the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi (typically in the southeast) in exchange for lands to the west. (LOC)

After 11-million acres of Choctaw land was acquired, the Choctaw were to be removed from Mississippi. It was determined that the best method of handling the removal was to move about one-third of the Choctaws per year in each of the years 1831, 1832 and 1833.

The first one-third of the Choctaws started to be removed on November 1, 1831. Overall, nearly 15,000 Choctaws made the move to what would be called Indian Territory (later known as Oklahoma.) (Green)

When the first wagons reached Little Rock, in an interview with an Arkansas Gazette reporter, one of the Choctaw Chiefs (thought to be either Thomas Harkins or Nitikechi) was quoted as saying that the removal to that point had been a “trail of tears and death.”

In the Choctaw language, okla means ‘people;’ homma or humma means ‘red.’ ‘Okla Homma’ translates to ‘Red People’ in Choctaw. On November 16, 1907, Oklahoma was admitted as the forty-sixth of the United States.

In 1911 Congress authorized the building of two battleships, the Nevada and the Oklahoma, to be a modern symbol of the power of the United States (These two battleships were to be the first to burn oil as fuel instead of coal.)

Oklahoma (BB-37) was laid down October 26, 1912 by New York Shipbuilding Corp, Camden, NJ. The ship was christened in March 23, 1914 by Lorena Jane Cruce, daughter of Oklahoma’s Governor, Lee Cruce. Ms. Cruce struck the ship with a bottle of champagne while stating, “In the name of the United States, I christen thee ‘Oklahoma.’”

The Navy had earlier convinced Governor Cruce that it was tradition to use champagne in christening ships. (The Governor had not liked the idea of using champagne to launch a ship named for his state)

The USS Oklahoma was commissioned at Philadelphia on May 2, 1916 with Captain Roger Welles commanding; the commissioning statement noted “that the Oklahoma might never become a mere instrument of destruction nor of strife, but a minister of peace and a guardian of rights and interests of mankind, protecting the weak against the strong.”

Attending the commissioning was the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D Roosevelt. (As president, Roosevelt would later declare war on Japan in 1941 after the attack at Pearl Harbor.) (Oklahoma Genealogical Society Quarterly)

The Oklahoma, a 27,500-ton Nevada class battleship, needed 2,166 sailors and marines to function properly. She could travel 20,000 miles without refueling. She carried ten 14-inch guns.

The guns on battleships are so big, that they rate them on how large their ammunition is in diameter. A 14-inch gun has shells that are 14 inches in diameter and weigh about 1,400 pounds each. Each of the Oklahoma’s guns could fire almost twelve miles. That’s farther than anyone could see, even with binoculars or a telescope. (OKHistory)

Joining the Atlantic Fleet with Norfolk her home port, Oklahoma trained on the eastern seaboard until sailing 13 August 1918 with sister ship Nevada to join in the task of protecting Allied convoys in European waters.

She then joined the Pacific Fleet for six years highlighted by the cruise of the Battle Fleet to Australia and New Zealand in 1925. She joined the Scouting Fleet in early 1927, Oklahoma was modernized at Philadelphia between September 1927 and July 1929 and conducted exercises in the Caribbean.

In August 1940, the Oklahoma had been in drydock in Puget Sound, Washington after participating in Army/Navy exercises. She was backing down Puget Sound in the fog and hit a tow line of a barge carrying railroad cars which sent railroad cars into the water. A Navy ship had never before collided with a train. (Oklahoma Genealogical Society Quarterly)

She was based at Pearl Harbor December 6, 1940 for patrols and exercises, and was moored in Battleship Row on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked.

Outboard alongside Maryland, Oklahoma took 3 torpedo hits almost immediately after the first Japanese bombs fell. As she began to capsize, 2 more torpedoes struck home, and her men were strafed as they abandoned ship.

Within 20 minutes after the attack began, she had swung over until halted by her masts touching bottom, her starboard side above water, and a part of her keel clear.

The Oklahoma capsized in a position parallel to the shore. Righting and refloating started with the first pull March 8, 1943, the final pull was on May 20, 1943 – it took 74-days to turn the ship over. She was floated by pumping air into air-tight compartments and pumping water out of the hull.

Too old and badly damaged to be worth returning to service, Oklahoma was formally decommissioned in September 1944. She was later sold to the Moore Drydock Co of Oakland, California, for scrapping. On May 17, 1947, while under tow, the Oklahoma sank 540-miles out of Pearl Harbor with no one on board.

In the attack on Pearl Harbor, there were 2,402 US deaths from the attack. 1,177 of those deaths were from the USS Arizona, while 429 of the deaths were from the USS Oklahoma (14 Marines and 415 Sailors.)

Thirty-five crew members were positively identified and buried in the years immediately after the attack. By 1950, all unidentified remains were laid to rest as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Recently, the Defense Department recovered for identification and return to families the last of 388 sailors and Marines killed on the battleship USS Oklahoma on December 7, 1941, and later buried as “unknowns” in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. (Lots of information here is from Navy.)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger