Sixty Five years ago today, in the midst of the worst day the American military had experienced to date, the USS Arizona was sunk in Pearl Harbor. It remains there to to this day, a memorial to a day which will live in infamy. Even today, though, the Arizona is performing one last duty
For 65 years, the wreck of the USS Arizona has been leaking oil from its grave at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, staining the water, visitors often say, as if it were the ship’s blood.
The leaks come from about 500,000 gallons of thick, bunker C fuel oil that remain trapped in the deteriorating hulk — oil whose “catastrophic” release experts now think is inevitable.
There are, of course, other, less scientific explanations for the oil that continues to seep from deep within the old battleship and when it might stop:
The legendary permanent oil slick that results from seepage from the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii. Legends surrounding Pearl Harbor and the Arizona date back to the Japanese attack in 1941. One such legend states that oil will continue to seep from the Arizona until all of her surviving crew have finally died, at which time the seepage will stop.
Of all the images that I will remember from our visit to Pearl Harbor in February, the one that sticks in my mind is looking over the edge of the USS Arizona Memorial and seeing the oil floating on the surface. It was, to say the least, a chilling reminder of what happened on that horrible day.
December 7th, 2006 at 10:11 am
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