USS Lexington

1942

Coral Sea, the fuel vapours, Phelps's scuttling Location: Coral Sea, ~500 nmi NE of Townsville, Australia · Coordinates: 15.20°S 155.55°E · Casualties: 216 · Survivors: ~2,735 · Depth: 3,000 m · Cause: aerial attack · secondary explosion — Struck by two aerial torpedoes and two bombs from Japanese carrier aircraft on 8 May 1942 at the Battle of the Coral Sea. Damage control appeared to have saved her by midday. At 12:47 an internal explosion from leaking aviation fuel vapours began a chain of secondary detonations that gutted her by evening. · Fate: abyssal · located 2018 · Type: aircraft carrier · Lexington class · Tonnage: 37,000 tons · Crew: 2951 · Flag: United States · Launched: 1925 American Lexington-class aircraft carrier, 'Lady Lex'. At the Battle of the Coral Sea on 8 May 1942, struck by two Japanese aerial torpedoes and two bombs; damage control seemed to have saved her until vapour from ruptured aviation fuel lines ignited and secondary explosions gutted her. 216 dead, scuttled by USS Phelps. Found intact in 2018 by Paul Allen's team at 3,000 metres with her fighter aircraft still on deck. The Vessel USS Lexington (CV-2) was one of the two Lexington-class aircraft carriers of the United States Navy, converted from the incomplete hulls of the Lexington-class battlecruisers cancelled under the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. She was commissioned on 14 December 1927 at the New York Shipbuilding Company, Camden, New Jersey. She was 270 metres long, 37,000 tons standard displacement, capable of carrying 78 aircraft, and driven by turbo-electric propulsion on four shafts at 34 knots, making her, with her sister USS Saratoga, the fastest American aircraft carrier of her generation. Her design reflected the American Navy's 1920s bet on the aircraft carrier as the capital ship of the future. She was the largest aircraft carrier in the world at her commissioning; her flight deck was longer and broader than any then in service. Her interwar period was spent developing the operational doctrine of carrier aviation: how to launch and recover aircraft at speed, how to coordinate multi-carrier strikes, how to integrate carrier aviation with fleet operations. The 1932 fleet problem at Pearl Harbor, in which Lexington attacked the defences of Pearl Harbor with surprise aircraft launches, had demonstrated at American naval war-game level exactly what the Japanese would achieve against Pearl Harbor ten years later. Her commanding officer at the date of her loss was Captain Frederick C. Sherman, 53, a career naval aviator and one of the most experienced American carrier captains of his generati The Disaster The Japanese attack on Task Force 17 was delivered in a two-wave pattern: high-altitude dive bombers first, followed by low-altitude torpedo bombers. Lexington was the primary target because of her larger silhouette and her position in the American formation. She was struck by two Type 91 aerial torpedoes on her port side (one at 11:20, one at 11:22) and by two 250-kilogram bombs (one on her forward flight deck at 11:27, one on her forward turret at 11:30). Her air group commander, Lieutenant-Commander William Ault, was killed when his aircraft was shot down during the engagement. By 11:45 on 8 May 1942, Captain Sherman's damage-control teams had largely contained the initial damage. Lexington was listing 7 degrees to port; her flight deck was damaged but operable; her forward gun turret was out of action; her aviation fuel system was intact. Sherman resumed flight operations at 12:15, recovering the returning Coral Sea strike aircraft. The damage control situation seemed under control. At 12:47 on 8 May 1942, an internal explosion in Lexington's auxiliary generator space initiated a secondary disaster. The torpedo hits had ruptured her aviation fuel tank vent lines; the ruptured lines had been venting aviation gasoline vapour into her compartment spaces for 90 minutes. The accumulated vapour ignited. The resulting explosion propagated through her fuel system and into her forward aircraft hangar. The secondary fire could not be controlled. Between 12:47 and 17:00 on 8 May 194