USS Lexington: Lost WW2 aircraft carrier found
Discussion
Halmyre said:
Great Thanks! I find shipwrecks oddly fascinating I was going to speculate as to what state some of the aircraft that had been on board when it sank are. The latest update on the Wiki site for the USS Lexington says this -
" a concentration of aircraft comprising seven Devastators, three Dauntlesses, and a single Wildcat was also located, in a good state of preservation".
I'm sure recovering aircraft from the depth the ship lies would be difficult and expensive but the thoughts of recovering some of these, especially the Devastators, would be interesting.
" a concentration of aircraft comprising seven Devastators, three Dauntlesses, and a single Wildcat was also located, in a good state of preservation".
I'm sure recovering aircraft from the depth the ship lies would be difficult and expensive but the thoughts of recovering some of these, especially the Devastators, would be interesting.
I looked at this too. The Guardian site had links to an article about the growing problem of Asian scrap men looting material from wartime wrecks which are generally considered as war graves. Some of the metal is valuable as being pre atomic it has no background radiation and has uses in research. Other stuff of course is non ferrous. Very sad - there must be a few survivors still around, not to mention relatives. Imagine the fuss if people started digging up war graves, although after a time it seems to be OK and becomes an archaeological exercise. The aircraft did look to be remarkably intact though, and it would be interesting to see if they could be conserved.
Perseverant said:
The aircraft did look to be remarkably intact though, and it would be interesting to see if they could be conserved.
At 3,000m depth its not surprising the metal is still OK, but, the fact that the doped fabric rudder surfaces have survived intact and look as if they sunk only yesterday is remarkable.Perseverant said:
Imagine the fuss if people started digging up war graves, although after a time it seems to be OK and becomes an archaeological exercise.
Time is a peculiar thing. It's acceptable to dig up skeletons from mediaeval battles and put them in a museum, but if you tried it with one from D-Day you'd be lynched. We make more fuss over Armistice Day than VE/VJ day even though it's longer ago, but 1815 is forgotten. We live in stangely sentimental times and I date it to Diana in 1997.Impressively Lexington continued to launch and recover aeroplanes even whilst seriously damaged: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lexington_(CV-2)
Edited by Simpo Two on Wednesday 7th March 10:20
Simpo Two said:
Meaning that a casualty with descendants is somehow 'worth more' than someone without. It's true but doesn't seem right. Anyway, we digress. Back to the Lexington.
Does it matter?In fact, being able to archaeologically investigate old burials is extremely interesting and worthwhile. We wouldn't know an awful lot of stuff if we hadn't been able to examine tombs, burial mounds, mass graves etc.
The F-4F has been identified now, as certain to have been the mount of Lt. Noel Gayler, the XO of VF-2 during the Battle of Coral Sea.
The 'kill' marks tally with his at the time, and it's known he and his aircraft were one of the 19 x VF-3 pilots transferred to VF-2 just before the Coral Sea battle, and he and his a/c were one of the 9 x VF-2 pilots on board the Lady Lex when she was lost. You can just make out a few of the letters of his name on the side of the aircraft below the cockpit in this blown up shot.
Lt. Gayler went on to become a USN Test Pilot at Pax and eventually became Admiral Gaylor, including being the USN Naval Attache in London between 1960-62, and served until retiring from the Navy in 1976.
Admiral Gayler passed away in 2011, aged 96.
The 'kill' marks tally with his at the time, and it's known he and his aircraft were one of the 19 x VF-3 pilots transferred to VF-2 just before the Coral Sea battle, and he and his a/c were one of the 9 x VF-2 pilots on board the Lady Lex when she was lost. You can just make out a few of the letters of his name on the side of the aircraft below the cockpit in this blown up shot.
Lt. Gayler went on to become a USN Test Pilot at Pax and eventually became Admiral Gaylor, including being the USN Naval Attache in London between 1960-62, and served until retiring from the Navy in 1976.
Admiral Gayler passed away in 2011, aged 96.
Krikkit said:
That is absolutely incredible preservation, even the windows aren't that dirty! I presume it's at a sweet-spot for depth in terms of marine life, temperature variation and chemical composition?
Not a lot of life at 9,000ft down at the ocean floor........Amazing window back into time though......
Steve_D said:
If she was intensionally scuttled then presumably everyone got off beforehand.
In which case why would she be a war grave?
Steve
I would guess that the live people got off, but the dead may as well be left to rest in place.In which case why would she be a war grave?
Steve
Presumably there were some flooded compartments with crew in them etc, that you simply cannot get to. Then where do you put 200+ bodies on whatever ships you have transferred them to, without crew watching them slowly rot.
Here's it's sister ship for comparison. The USS Saratoga was sunk during the atom bomb testing at Bikini Atoll in 1946. Much shallower wreck.
http://www.petemesley.com/lust4rust/wreck-trips/bi...
https://argunners.com/uss-saratoga-cv-3-shipwreck-...
http://www.petemesley.com/lust4rust/wreck-trips/bi...
https://argunners.com/uss-saratoga-cv-3-shipwreck-...
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