Like the Floating Forest Gump, the USS Nevada has found a seat at the forefront of the most significant events in twentieth-century American history. In addition to surviving Pearl Harbor and two nuclear tests, the war also served in a number of important operations during World War II. Now, after more than 10 years on the coast, the wreckage of the USS Nevada shipwreck (BB-363) is located about 120 kilometers (65 nautical miles) southwest of Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean.
The USS Nevada served in both World Wars. Nevada was the only battlefield during the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor in 1941, after defending supply ships in Ireland during World War I. It then sailed across the Atlantic to take part in the Aladdin D-Day landing on 19 June 4 – the largest beach attack in history – before heading to the Pacific Ocean to take a leading role in the Okinawa attack.
Things didn’t get much easier for the ship after the war. It then survived two nuclear explosions during the test to see how the atomic bomb was effective against the ship. Eventually, the rigid ship sank in the Pacific Ocean in the summer of 1986 in the United States, which used the vessel as a target exercise. Of course, the Navy’s artillery was unable to sink infamous Nevada, so a bombardment of aerial torpedoes was used to give the ship a final coup.
Experts knew the rough coordinates of where the ship sank, and for almost 72 years the wreckage of a private archaeological agency and marine robotics company Ocean Infinity had not looked into its wreckage until recently. Using autonomous underwater vehicles, the collaborative project was able to detect ship damage at a depth of 4,700 meters (15,400 feet) and capture stunning footage of the site. The team was working from Ocean Infinity’s ship Pacific Constructor, which traveled to the Pacific Ocean for various commercial purposes in early 2020 before the Covid-1 and the epidemic was placed on the back burner of world research.
Dr. James Delgado, SEARCH’s senior vice president and lead maritime archaeologist on the mission, said in a statement, “Nevada is an iconic ship that speaks to American resilience and stubbornness.” “The physical reality of the ship resting in the darkness of a great museum at sea is not only reminiscent of the events of the past, who took up the challenge of defending the United States in World War II. So we search the sea to find those strong connections. ” James Pochurek, SEARCH’s president added, “The discovery of the USS Nevada is another reminder of the powerful human stories beneath the waves that wait to be told again.”
