USS Yorktown

1942

Midway, the hinge, Ballard's discovery Location: Pacific Ocean, NW of Midway Atoll · Coordinates: 30.59°N 176.57°W · Casualties: 141 · Survivors: ~2,100 · Depth: 5,070 m · Cause: aerial attack · submarine torpedo — Bombed by Japanese carrier aircraft from Hiryū on the afternoon of 4 June 1942 during the Battle of Midway. Temporarily abandoned but reboarded for salvage. On 6 June she was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-168; she sank the following morning. · Fate: abyssal · located 1998 · Type: aircraft carrier · Yorktown class · Tonnage: 25,900 tons · Crew: 2217 · Flag: United States · Launched: 1936 American Yorktown-class carrier, 'The Fighting Lady', patched in 72 hours at Pearl Harbor after Coral Sea and on station at Midway on the morning of 4 June 1942. Bombed in two waves by Japanese carrier aircraft and torpedoed two days later by the submarine I-168. She sank on 7 June, the day the battle that reversed the Pacific War ended. Found in 1998 by Robert Ballard at over 5,000 metres, bombers still chained to her deck. The Vessel USS Yorktown (CV-5) was the lead ship of the Yorktown-class aircraft carriers of the United States Navy, commissioned at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company on 30 September 1937. She was 246 metres long, 25,900 tons standard displacement, carried 90 aircraft, and designed for 32.5 knots on four shafts. She was the principal American aircraft carrier design of the late 1930s; her successful service record would ultimately produce the Essex-class carriers that would dominate the Pacific War from 1943 forward. Her commanding officer in the Pacific through 1942 was Captain Elliott Buckmaster, 52 years old, a career naval aviator. Her air group, the Yorktown Air Group, was considered the most experienced carrier air group in the U.S. Navy by mid-1942: they had participated in the January 1942 raids on the Marshall Islands, the February Wake Island raid, the March 1942 raid on the Salamaua-Lae invasion force in New Guinea, and the Coral Sea engagement of 7-8 May 1942. Her Coral Sea damage of 8 May 1942 had included a bomb hit that had penetrated her flight deck and detonated in a fireroom, killing 66 men. Normal American Pacific Fleet repair estimates for her damage were three months in dry dock. Under the specific pressure of the approaching Japanese Midway operation, Admiral Chester Nimitz ordered that the repairs be completed in 72 hours. The Disaster Hiryū's first counter-strike reached USS Yorktown at 14:15 on 4 June 1942. Eighteen Aichi D3A Val dive-bombers attacked the carrier despite a heavy American combat air patrol. Three bombs struck Yorktown: one on her flight deck, one in her smokestack, one in the auxiliary machinery space. The hits caused serious damage: her smokestack fire knocked out her boilers, her flight deck was unserviceable, and her speed fell to 6 knots. Captain Buckmaster ordered abandon-ship preparations but kept a skeleton crew aboard to attempt damage control. Her crew's damage-control work was effective. Within two hours of the first attack, her boilers were back on line and she was making 20 knots; her flight deck was partially repaired. At 16:30 on 4 June 1942, Hiryū's second strike (ten Nakajima B5N Kate torpedo bombers) reached her. Two torpedo hits on her port side disabled her steering and reopened her flooding; the list increased to 26 degrees. Captain Buckmaster ordered complete abandon-ship at 17:10 on 4 June. 2,270 men were transferred to the escorting destroyers. Despite the heavy damage and the abandon-ship order, Yorktown did not immediately sink. She floated through the night of 4-5 June 1942, still trimmed on her port side but structurally intact. At dawn on 6 June 1942, a salvage party under Commander Clarence Aldrich returned aboard and began pumping her out. Salvage tug USS Vireo took her in tow at 13:30 on 6 June with the salvage party working aboard. At 13:35 on 6 June 1942, t