# USS Arizona remains **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140 "2010-03-20T16:04:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/1 "2010-03-20T16:04:46Z")
In a show about the attack on Pearl Harbor, a National Park ranger said that the USS _Arizona_ is the tomb for over 900 men. Do any remains still exist? Or have they been completely devoured by sea life? Tangentally related question: [A great uncle](http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:S5e52piNwwwJ:www.ussarizona.org/crew/kirkpatrick/index.html) was Chaplain on _Arizona_. I’ve seen him referred to as [Commander](http://gonebutnotforgotten.homestead.com/kirkpatrick.html), but he was promoted to Captain five months before his death. Why the discrepancy? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/2 "2010-03-20T16:25:25Z")
An [unmanned minisub surveyed the Arizona in 2001](http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jun/23/news/mn-13797), and operators reported they saw no remains. It is the opinion of the National Park Service (which administers the Arizona memorial) that they have decomposed. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/3 "2010-03-20T16:48:00Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > An [unmanned minisub surveyed the Arizona in 2001](http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jun/23/news/mn-13797), and operators reported they saw no remains. It is the opinion of the National Park Service (which administers the Arizona memorial) that they have decomposed. Does this include the skeletons? ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/4 "2010-03-20T17:37:49Z")
It’s certainly not impossible that remains still exist. [You can see a lot of Japanese remains at Truk Atoll to this day.](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=8Ui&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=truk%20atoll%20human%20remains&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/5 "2010-03-20T17:37:54Z")
Of their bones are corals made, and these are pearls that were their eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/6 "2010-03-20T18:05:57Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > Does this include the skeletons? That is what I inferred. Skeletons are remains, and they said they saw no remains. It is possible there are skeletal remains in areas they did not survey. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/7 "2010-03-20T20:15:28Z")
It’s 30 years older but I don’t think they found any remains on the Titanic. It’s also at 15,000 feet under water. ---
**Author:** ![SanDiegoTim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/8 "2010-03-20T20:26:25Z")
Would it not be possible if some were entombed in water tight compartments? I don’t know if there was enough time for an order to seal any compartments to be given, but it’s certainly possible. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/9 "2010-03-20T20:40:56Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > In a show about the attack on Pearl Harbor, a National Park ranger said that the USS _Arizona_ is the tomb for over 900 men. Do any remains still exist? Or have they been completely devoured by sea life? I suspect there will be _some_ remains within the hull - any inaccessible spaces or voids that silted up rather quickly could act to preserve the remains there. Remember: When they raised CSS _Hunley_ they found remains from the crew there, in part because of how quickly it silted up. So, while no remains were seen by the ROV, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that there are some remains still within the hull. ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/10 "2010-03-20T22:30:24Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > It’s 30 years older but I don’t think they found any remains on the Titanic. It’s also at 15,000 feet under water. Not sure if I’m understanding this correctly, but wasn’t the Arizona at Pearl Harbour and nowhere near 15,000 feet down? ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/11 "2010-03-20T22:31:19Z")
> [@SanDiegoTim](#): > > Would it not be possible if some were entombed in water tight compartments? I don’t know if there was enough time for an order to seal any compartments to be given, but it’s certainly possible. It’s worth remembering that some of the crew remained alive for days (or maybe even weeks) after the sinking. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/12 "2010-03-20T22:55:54Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > It’s worth remembering that some of the crew remained alive for days (or maybe even weeks) after the sinking. How was anyone able to verify that? Anyway, I used to live in Schofield Barracks in the late 1970’s, and I recall the Pearl Harbor tour, and someone asked a question of the guide while we were observing the broken ship from the floating memorial to the effect of “why don’t they just go in there and get the bodies so they can be buried?” and the answer the tour guide gave was that the Arizona had continued to seep oil until that very day (still?) and that underwater “welding/cutting” would be potentially dangerous and wasn’t worth the risk due to a potential explosion. Is anything about that true? Or is it more a matter of the fact that Naval tradition and having sailors being in Davy Jones Locker or some such line of thinking that prevails? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/13 "2010-03-20T23:54:27Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Is anything about that true? Or is it more a matter of the fact that Naval tradition and having sailors being in Davy Jones Locker or some such line of thinking that prevails? It would be easy to drill and tap a hole for a spigot to drain the oil. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/14 "2010-03-21T00:11:13Z")
With today’s technology the _Arizona_ could be raised quite easily. But there is no reason to do so, and a number of very good reasons **not** to. The site is a memorial, and sacred ground (well, water). There is no more fitting interment place for the brave men that died that day than with their comrades in arms aboard the ship they defended to the end. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/15 "2010-03-21T00:45:47Z")
I can confirm that the oil is still leaking. At least, it was about five years ago when I was there. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/16 "2010-03-21T00:56:23Z")
HMS Royal Oak (sunk 1939 in Scapa Flow) is still leaking oil as well. A lot of the oil was pumped out in [2006 and 2007.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Oak_(08)#Environmental_concerns) ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/17 "2010-03-21T01:31:49Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > How was anyone able to verify that? I can’t say vis-a-vis _Arizona_. There were many reports of hammering from inside the capsized _Oklahoma_, that just petered off after a few days. Some of those hammering were cut out, but most were unable to be gotten out in time. It’s not hard for me to believe the same sort of communications were heard from _Arizona_. > [@](#): > > Anyway, I used to live in Schofield Barracks in the late 1970’s, and I recall the Pearl Harbor tour, and someone asked a question of the guide while we were observing the broken ship from the floating memorial to the effect of “why don’t they just go in there and get the bodies so they can be buried?” and the answer the tour guide gave was that the Arizona had continued to seep oil until that very day (still?) and that underwater “welding/cutting” would be potentially dangerous and wasn’t worth the risk due to a potential explosion. > > Is anything about that true? The oil leaking from _Arizona_ is real. It’s not an inconsiderable concern for anyone concerned about the environmental consequences if one of her bunkers collapses. As of last year, the Navy and the Parks Service have been mapping the hull to see what they can do about non-intrusively removing the oil. Personally, I don’t see why simple drilling wouldn’t be acceptable. I don’t know that the oil would make for a hazard for underwater operations. I would think that the silt, poor visibility, close quarters, and unstable hull would all make removing any remains dangerous now. > [@](#): > > Or is it more a matter of the fact that Naval tradition and having sailors being in Davy Jones Locker or some such line of thinking that prevails? Personally, I can’t discount the possibility of that kind of tradition being part of the reasoning. Especially when we’re talking about a site that is one of those sacred to the USN. However, I’d also say that there’s also no compelling reason to put anyone else at risk to recover those traces that may remain. There will be a non-zero risk to the people doing the work, and I can’t think of a single benefit that would accrue from doing that. In which case, my feeling is: don’t risk lives over something so pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/18 "2010-03-21T01:56:34Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > I can confirm that the oil is still leaking. At least, it was about five years ago when I was there. And the legend has it, when the last survivor dies, the oil will stop leaking. _ooOOeeEEEOooo!_ ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/19 "2010-03-21T02:01:13Z")
> [@Dahu](#): > > Not sure if I’m understanding this correctly, but wasn’t the Arizona at Pearl Harbour and nowhere near 15,000 feet down? Bad wording by me - I did not mean to say the Arizona is at 15,000 feet. I meant to say the Titanic sank 30 years earlier and it is at 15,000 feet. Should not have said “also” ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140/20 "2010-03-21T05:16:22Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > It would be easy to drill and tap a hole for a spigot to drain the oil. This is cold bunker it does not pump easily unless heated. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uss-arizona-remains/533140.md?page=2)