For those interested in taking a look at sections of the sunken USS Arizona not normally seen — those below the murky waters of Pearl Harbor — the National Park Service is diving on the historic battleship and broadcasting it on a live webcast Saturday.
The massive triple 14-inch guns of the bow-mounted turret 1, for example, are the only ones not salvaged from the Arizona, but are not usually visible just 15 feet below the surface, said Scott Pawlowski, chief of cultural and natural resources for the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the Arizona Memorial.
“One of the biggest questions that we get asked at the visitor center is, ‘What’s underwater?’” Pawlowski said.
The NPS Submerged Resources Center will conduct a field dive to commemorate the 99th anniversary of the ship’s commissioning. The last live televised dive was in April. Pawlowski said he anticipates doing more of the educational dives. “This is one of the more refined steps we’re taking,” he added.
Most of the 1,177 crew members who perished Dec. 7, 1941, remain entombed in the Arizona, which rests in water that’s about 40 feet at its deepest on top of 20 feet of silt, Pawlowski said.
About 100 cubic feet of coral now encrusts the ship, he said. That compares with no coral growth visible at all in underwater photos from the early 1980s.
Up to 500,000 gallons of Bunker C fuel oil are still believed to be held in the ship, but structurally, the park service maintains the battleship is good for about 180 years before there could be a major problem, Pawlowski said.
Pawlowski said he’s dived on the Arizona regularly for the last five years.
“From a structural standpoint, I see little things, like little places that rust out that are nonstructural, like one of the gun tubs we’ll show on Saturday — some of the shielding rusted out,” he said.
The dive, scheduled from 4 to 5 p.m., will be broadcast in the visitor center theater. It can also be watched live on Adobe Connect. Preregistration is at nps.gov/valr. Before the dive, the public can submit questions via Facebook and Twitter using the hashtag #USSAZ99.
