Battleship that survived Pearl Harbor and atomic bomb test found 3 miles underwater

A U.S. battleship that endured the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor and an atomic bomb test in 1946 has been rediscovered 15,400 feet down on the Pacific floor, according to SEARCH Inc, which partnered with Ocean Infinity to find the ship.

The USS Nevada was found with marine robot technology “65 nautical miles southeast of Pearl Harbor,” according to a press release issued Monday.

The vessel is considered unique among U.S. battleships because it survived the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944 and an atomic bomb experiment in the Marshall Islands in 1946, according to a Naval History and Heritage Command report.

Details of the current state of the ship were not released, but photos show the blackened hulk remains recognizable despite being heavily damaged.

“The wreck was located 3 miles deep in the Pacific,” SEARCH Inc. posted on Facebook Monday. “The veteran battleship, which survived Pearl Harbor, German artillery, a kamikaze attack, and two atomic blasts, is a reminder of American perseverance and resilience.”

The Nevada was scorched and radioactive when it sank on July 31, 1948, while being used as target practice by the U.S. Navy, Naval History and Heritage Command reports. It took four days to sink the ship, which only added to reputation as “too tough to die,” SEARCH Inc said in a release.

It was “one of the U.S. Navy’s longest serving battleships, and viewed as the epitome of American resilience and perseverance,” the release said.

The Nevada was commissioned in 1916 and operated in the Atlantic during World War I, then in the Pacific during World War II, according Naval History and Heritage Command.

It was “the only battleship able to get underway” during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Retired Rear Admiral Samuel Cox said in a press release.

“During the attack, the ship and crew sustained at least six, and possibly, as many as ten bomb hits and one torpedo hit, but remained in the fight,” Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command, said in the release. “With our sailors quick thinking, the crew grounded the ship, preventing her from sinking. The ship was repaired and immediately returned to the fight.”

In the wartime years that followed, the Nevada participated in the invasions of Normandy (in 1944), Iwo Jima and Okinawa (both in 1945), the command says. The boat was hit by a suicide plane and by an artillery shell, yet stayed in the fight, the command reported.

“She was too old for retention in the post-war fleet, and was assigned to serve as a target during the July 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini, in the Marshall Islands. That experience left her damaged and radioactive, and she was formally decommissioned in August 1946,” the command reports. “After two years of inactivity, USS Nevada was towed to sea off the Hawaiian islands and sunk by gunfire.”

James Delgado of SEARCH Inc. was the lead maritime archaeologist on the expedition and said the ship is now part of “the great museum of the sea.” He did not say if any future expeditions would revisit the site.

“Nevada is an iconic ship that speaks to American resilience and stubbornness. Rising from its watery grave after being sunk at Pearl Harbor, it survived torpedoes, bombs, shells and two atomic blasts,” Delgado said in the release.

This story was originally published May 11, 2020 at 12:38 PM with the headline "Battleship that survived Pearl Harbor and atomic bomb test found 3 miles underwater."