Salvaging USS Nevada: Pearl Harbor’s Toxic Refloat Gamble

#USSNevada #Shipwreck #MaritimeHistory #ShipSalvage #PearlHarbor
USS Nevada was the only battleship to get underway on December 7, 1941—then took a Type 91 aerial torpedo hit and faced a captain’s brutal choice: run the channel and risk sinking as a steel cork, or deliberately beach the ship. This documentary follows the USS Nevada from the impact at frames 41–42 through the hard grounding at Hospital Point, where hogging stress and repeated bomb hits turned survival into a full-scale ship salvage crisis.

You’ll see how layered torpedo defense “worked” yet still failed through warped plating and popped rivets, causing progressive flooding and an increasing list. Then the story turns darker: the USS Nevada became a hazmat zone as rotting provisions generated hydrogen sulfide gas—deadly, heavier-than-air, and nearly invisible—forcing new ventilation rules, gas masks, and strict exposure limits for divers.

From window-frame patches that use the ocean’s pressure as a clamp, to the failed giant wooden patch over the torpedo cavern, the salvage team pivots to heavy shoring the inner torpedo bulkhead—betting timber, math, and nonstop pumping against mud suction and collapse. The USS Nevada refloats on February 12, 1942, reaches Dry Dock No. 2 days later, and is ultimately rebuilt into a combat platform that fights from Normandy to the Pacific.

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This video is for educational and historical documentation. Some images are AI-generated. All materials follow YouTube Fair Use policies.