The Engineering Miracle: Saving Pearl Harbor's Battleships

84 years ago, on December 7, 1941, the United States' Pacific Fleet was attacked by aircraft from the Imperial Japanese armed forces. In a devastating strike, torpedo and dive bombers wreaked havoc on the battleships which had been moored in peacetime; battleships like USS California, USS West Virginia, USS Nevada, USS Tennessee, USS Oklahoma, USS Maryland, and USS Arizona were all rocked by explosions over at 'battleship row' while a handful of other vessels like USS Utah, Raleigh, Helena and Oglala were targeted elsewhere. It was a devastating blow and it thrust America into the second world war - but what happened next was a marvel of engineering and skill. For the next few years, civilian and navy workers toiled to return nearly all of the sunken and damaged ships to service. It's one of the most incredible tales of resilience, hard work and good old fashioned clever engineering; this is the true story of the Pearl Harbor salvage division and their quest to raise America's sunken warships.

Written by Mike Brady & Chris Buntin
Wiith original footage from the U.S National Archives

Oceanliner Designs explores the design, construction, engineering and operation of history’s greatest vessels– from Titanic to Queen Mary and from the Empress of Ireland to the Lusitania. Join maritime researcher and illustrator Michael Brady as he tells the stories behind some of history's most famous ocean liners and machines!

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0:00 Introduction
2:00 Day of Infamy: The Attack
20:45 Salvage Begins
23:04 USS Pennsylvania
23:47 USS Helena
27:57 USS Maryland
32:50 USS Vestal
35:50 USS Raleigh
38:20 USS Shaw
40:10 USS Cassin & USS Downes
42:18 USS Nevada
51:29 USS California
01:14:51 USS West Virginia
01:33:53 USS Oklahoma
01:43:46 USS Arizona
01:49:06 USS Utah

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