USS Oriskany Aircraft Carrier Sinking

[Marko007ify]

why they sunk it?

[gailgrove]

@Marko007ify Did you not listen to the video?

[explosivemadness]

make a museum or sell it to the pepole

[pramboy09]

@explosivemadness there are enough around already, it's not an historically important carrier, the carrier that should have been saved by the americans but wasn't was uss enterprise, fought through the pacific campaign from start to finish.

[explosivemadness]

why

[mrblujet]

5 hours v. 35 minutes? Looks like someone forgot to carry the 1 : )

[hzuiel]

@mrblujet They probably divided by zero.

[Loliaz]

Instead of blowing it apart why not just tear it down and use the pieces for newer ships? unless ofcourse it was too rusty for it.

[TheMooshkin]

5 hours and 35 minutes is a REALLY big difference.

[malcolmmorin]

What?! Titanic took 2 hours to sink, but the aircraft carrier took only 5 mins?! What?!

[joe2go16]

@malcolmmorin

Not 5 minutes, 35 minutes.

[mmysama]

@malcolmmorin

The titanic had seperate watertight compartments as well as pumps. A lot of technology was used to slow it's sinking.

[SpincterManBubba]

The "kiss a fish people thought it would be better to contaminate the water so they could hang out in a bunch of rust.

[hyperthreaded]

Wouldn't it be much better to take the ship apart and reuse the raw materials? I imagine the scrap value of all that metal must be in the millions of dollars.

[JackaWilko]

500 lb? sinking an aircraft carrier that big... somehow that sounds unlikely

[getsomelead]

@JackaWilko they placed the charges at the seems of the hull after they cut most of the supports, the average air deployed torpedo in ww2 was had only 500lb of explosives on it.

[flyfarmer1]

my dad was a just 19yrs old when he was  on that carrier fighting in the vietnam war . now are kids are fighting and being killed for what?

OIL !!!!!!!!!!!

[TheGreasepit]

hmmm....lemme think on this one......huge unemployment in the states....a STEEL 900 foot aircraft carrier that could have been cut up, and recycled, creating lots of jobs, and even possibly fired up some abandoned steel mill, in some abandoned steel city. But no...let's blow the bottom out, litter the ocean floor even more. And you americans wonder why your houses are being foreclosed on. Artificial reef....fuck off....all you did was take the cheapest way to discard your waste...AGAIN...

[gp556by45]

@TheGreasepit First off, this carrier was sunk in 2006, well before the economy went to shit. Second, they spent TWO YEARS cleaning out the ship of waste before they sunk it. If we wanted the cheapest, we would have SOLD it to a scrap yard for millions, not spend millions cleaning it. It is one of the most popular wreck diving locations in the WORLD, and wild life thrives inside and out of the ship, so fuck off.

[AMissfiredGun]

id like to see an inside-view

[71tankerman]

Should have been made into a museum-- the Big O had survived alot!

[salemcripple]

@71tankerman Exactly! It's better than scrapping her out. But by sinking her, They just made her inaccessible to virtually every one.

[hillbillypilot]

cool video

[MrDeano324]

@ArchAngeCaleb, she still is...just that she's full of water and fish and shit :)

[ArchAngeCaleb]

This is sad. A Grand Old Dame she was.

[dawg1157]

@ArchAngeCaleb I'd much rather have her sunk and used as an artificial reef than cut up for scrap at some crummy shipyard in Japan somewhere.....

[zeekwolfe]

Why did they sink the shipe with a truck on board?

[taterfamine]

@zeekwolfe

for the lols

[rgur90x]

@zeekwolfe that's a boat. remember, this ship is 800-900 ft long. a truck would look tiny on it.

[moparmaniac666]

well most the time we give the old ships to allies with smaller military capacity like european countries and if the shit hits the fan it probably will indirectly fight for us. but after 50 years hull integrity is something not easily restored to 100%. and you can store hundreds of billions of dollars of aircraft and machinery on a boat made out of rust and patch metal.

[SaberTanker22]

I remember this i watched them set the charges and watch her sink to the sea below.

[haristeam]

was there a car on the deck?

[bearhaulin120]

if we didn't destroy and scrap all of our ships,and instead upgraded them with missiles and modern weapons,including that carrier,we would have the most powerful navy the world has ever known. just saying,though it would cost out the wazoo! it would stipp be epic

[stewiegriffin65]

artificial reef 

[TEXASA8M12thMAN]

makes no sense why they sunk the carrier. they could of made it a wonderful museum.

[DonBringer]

may you rest in peace old mate! of course with your sisters

[Tomislav666]

Next time we will sink the USS Reagan.

[bestamerica]

Tomislav666,

Next time we will sink the USS Reagan

why is that,,,

be nice and respect to ron reagan,,,

he did made the germany become ONE germany and beat the ussr russia break down ussr russia curse communist country

[Tomislav666]

@bestamerica: No, darling, we have done it ourselves. Would you prefer to bombard the Kreml? Let me know, i will take part.

[bestamerica]

Tomislav666,

i am NOT interesting visit to ussr russia,,,

never never

[ultramarine1234]

i watched this documentary

[TheNintendonerd45]

these people are morons , it has let outrecently been letting out chemicals in to the nice ocean amoinna, rust, oil, gas and many other poisons are being let out into the ocean, as a enviromintetalist, i say that it was a bad choice these idiots made, any one agree?

[fluffybanther]

@TheNintendonerd45 Are you really being serious? Even if the Oriskany is really releasing all of those things you mentioned, the fact that is provides shelter for marine life that wouldn't be able to survive on a barren sea floor is more than enough to start up an artificial reef. There are plenty of "poisonous" ships that were unintentionally sunk in the world via bad weather (storms), and there's ton's of things growing in them.

[ultramarine1234]

@TheNintendonerd45 yeah i suppose but it does offer a good diving experience

[CarMoves]

@TheNintendonerd45 - you are clueless, millions are spent to strip and clean the ship before sinking. You have no clue

[wrothstarkiller]

@TheNintendonerd45 the rust doesnt really do anything to the ocean floor. The oil and other poisonous chemicals harm the ocean because of all the oil companies carelessness and people thinking they are so good littering ocean with plastics and other dangerous materials.

[CarMoves]

@bestamerica - Many times it's done for economic reasons. If you sink a ship like this, it attracts tons of divers. Divers eat food, stay in hotels, and drink a lot -- great for tourism

[bestamerica]

CarMoves,

dont use a word - YOU - on me,,,

ship is still not good sink on the oceanfloor

[CarMoves]

@bestamerica - can you speak english? wrecks are awesome to dive on. stay on the sofa and watch your tv.

[bestamerica]

CarMoves,

hi again,,,

dont use 2 words - YOU / YOUR - on me,,,

this ship can bring back to dry dock and throw to recycle metal,,,

keep oceanfloor clean and keep fishes alives without rusty metal

[CarMoves]

@bestamerica - the ships actually save the lives of the fish. The fish live inside the ship and are able to hide from sharks and much bigger fish. Rust (iron oxide) does NOT kill fish.

[camaro397]

my grand father charles w. akains served on tht ship he even gt the medal of honor for saving some mens lives when it was hit by a torpedo

[StickmanPaul]

i read somewhere that aircraft carriers like these (i think..) could only be destroyed by a nuclear weapon but.. then again nobody said anything about implosion.

[puppetmaster25]

I wouldn't trust the one who wrote that ;) Even Nimitz class carriers can be sunk by cruise missiles and torpedos. Just think of all the bombs and fuel on a carrier and the effect of a cruise missile igniting one them. This is one of the reasons why the USSR never favoured super carriers and instead focused on building submarines, large missile cruisers, like the Kirovs, and maritime strike bombers with cruise missiles to counter the large number of US carriers effectivly

[halffliffe]

Fair well USS Oriskany

[Marko007ify]

why they sink it?

[mrgeorgeallison]

the video says why.

[KartKing4ever]

its old and has some unfixable damage

[1bearcatf8f]

Atleast this carrier made it threw war,unlike the carrier forestol where a bad chain reaction of bad event sunk it.

[Cirux321]

@1bearcatf8f

The Forrestal wasnt sunk. She had a long, successful career. The Forrestal, was decommissioned in 1993, stripped of usable parts for current operating carriers and is being prepped to be sank as an artificial deep-water reef much like the Oriskany.

[1bearcatf8f]

Oh i thought it was sunk,mmmm nevermind.

[ericpieper69]

Did you guys hear about the 52 by 12 foot hole thats in the boat now? A hurricane put it there.

[Cirux321]

@ericpieper69

Yup. Hurricane Ida knocked a big hole in the ships island structure. Hurricane Gustav made the ship settle 10ft deeper in the sand. Her deck is at 145ft now instead of 135ft when she first was sank.

[amrcnidiot69]

i don't know if anyone in here can help me, but a while back the discovery channel or science channel or history, one of those. had a show on that was making an artificial reef and they put cameras inside the ship so it would capture the inside of it while it sank.... does anyone know were i can find that at?

[ruel68ify]

i don't know how i can help you but just finished the whole program here in channel 5 UK about sinking of these mega structure Oriskany. yes they put camera inside the ship, captured the spectacular wall of water rushing inside the ship. they used tons of explossive,took over a year to sunk these aircraft carrier which was designed unsinkable. i supposed to go to my appointment today but saw the program on channel 5,anyway i can go tomorrow. amrcnidiot69 u must see this film,worth watching:)

[SteveBrownOfficial]

Sinking it level was an engineering feet. Taking out the contamination was an engineering feet. This ship is very large subject matter with it's history & what they did to it.

[1ndabag]

@SteveBrownOfficial What do the engineer's feet have to do with it?

[SteveBrownOfficial]

@1ndabag  Engineering feat.lol

[Butterfinger109]

@SteveBrownOfficial i think the engineering feats are more important than the engineer's feet

[777worldliner]

what a wast!

[Coraxuss]

It became a waste when the last private company bought the ship from the navy for scrap but failed to make any progress on it. As a result, the ship ended up rusting away by the time the navy reclaimed the ship to be sunk and renamed The Great Carrier Reef.

Look how much of a rust bucket the Oriskany had became when the Navy was towing it to be sunk:

tinyurl . c o m / yfgpwzh

[HHodges710]

this was not a waste, if you or anyone think this was a waste, then you are just dumb, plain and simple

[TheGatman101]

i would like 2 scuba thru that wreck

[AzraelNY]

I don't understand why the naval would sink ships like this. I mean in this case it will perhaps bring a lot of tourism, but their are other newer aircraft carriers that are being sunk for the same reasons, except they are sinking them in deep waters to keep divers away from what will become an artificial reef since they don't want the designs studied.

I'm just really surprised that these ships can't be scraped for parts or sold and used...

Can someone explain why sinking is common?!

[ericpieper69]

Well they did try to to sell her for scrap twice but it failed. So they just wanted to create life where there was none. But as far as sinking newer ships where they can't be dived on you got me.

[OldSkoolgamerz]

Because scrapping and recycling a ship can be far more expensive than simply sinking it.

[JDvorak2009]

Dad was on the USS Oriskany, CV-34 at that time back in the early 1950s. Korea. If anybody else was there betw 1950-1952, give a shout out, I'm sure dad might want to hear from you guys.

[BerPC96]

screw john decker

[datapad]

I've seen this on discovery channel or something like that...

[oxmys]

But then, after secret atomic testing by the US Navy, the aircraft carrier-turnedreef returns to seek its revenge!

[igloo4345]

Bravo Zulu Oriskany

[bloppo11]

if nobody needed it... I could have it !

[sirciferz]

It was cleaned of anything that could have damaged the enviornment, and it was made into an artificial reef, which kind of is recycling it.

[PinoAnti666]

why not recycle it!

it could make water or sea polution!..=(

[1PAcouchpotato]

i hear people like to go diving to these ships-and fish like to live in em

[douchebottle]

you hear right moron

[1PAcouchpotato]

Wow, to be honest, I had a hard time understanding your comment, due to the lack of proper grammar, you faggot.

[AcidStar8]

@1PAcouchpotato Its the worlds largest artificial reef...

[livsabres17]

i saw the discovery channel mini-documentary about the sinking of the Oriskany and it was very impressive. i encourage everyone to watch it if possible - it reinforces the fact that US carriers were/are built to withstand just about anything short of a direct hit by a nuclear bomb. and while it is sad to see such a noble vessel sunk forever, it is also a fitting to see a ship laid to rest in the same was as those who died fighting for our country on her decks.

[algae1278]

Oh yeah, I saw that. Isn't that the one where they gut her totally, spray her down, and then figure out where to plant the charges?

[asthenia44lb]

I saw that too, missed the end though, unfortunately, damn good show though. I'd love to dive the Oriskany one day.

[GeneralKenobiSIYE]

I think sinking is the most honorable way for a fighting ship so meet its end. Much better than being made into car parts and safety razors that will all end up in junk yards and landfills. I salute the Oriskany.

[bloppo11]

why was that necessary?? i COULD HAVE IT!!!!

[chivone21]

Yeah, charge it on your MasterCard, or Visa.

[SGTYEAGER]

my grandfather served on that ship. and im proud of it dammit!

[erfica]

Yes, that is all true. I was an Infantry Officer with the 101st in Vietnam. Yet, I regret the end of this ship.

[Hiei0dark0duke]

well actually guys it was built for ww2 and the korean war and since by the time it passed the test to be able to fight ww2 was over so they didn't really needed it

i saw it up close, woot

[Cirux321]

Just face it guys. The Oriskany out-lived its usefulness. Its an Essex class built in the late 40's. For a US Naval warship it was a valiant ending, rather then being broke up by the cutters torch. Currently there are plans to do the same with the USS Forrestal and USS Midway. In 2008 the USS Kittyhawk will be decomm'd leaving only nuclear powered supercarriers in active service.

[roaklin]

Midway is now on display in San Diego. The enviromental laws also prevents such large vessels being scrapped totally in US waters, and we don't sell such ships to anyone. So let them be used this way.

[Cirux321]

Yup. Midway was set as a museum ship. The USS Forrestal however is currently undergoing preparations to be sank as an artificial reef, like the Oriskany. Though the Navy is regulating the depth the forrestal is to be sank. Because the current US carriers have a lot of design features thats based off the forrestal class, she is going to be sunk at a depth unreachable to divers. Its supposed to aid with fishery propagation.

[cdfe3388]

I suppose it's better this way than the scrapyard. Just look at what happened to the Enterprise in the 50s. The single most important ship in US history, on which thousands of our best lived, fought, bled, and died, cut up into razor blades and cheap car parts. Maybe I'm sentimental, but those ships kept so many alive, yet we write them off as junk...

[technoman43]

too me its sad to see such a betiful thing go to wast like that

[ScottPwn0r]

I guess for every video on YouTube, there has to be 1 conspiracy theorist... I wonder if there's any on that Skateboarding Dog one?

But yeah, pretty cool video, and good that it'll be turned into a reef for fish.

[perltyr]

USS Oriskany had over 90% rust, i.e doomed as a ship. The steel used to build it was a primitive alloy, that cannot withstand anymore. The explosion shattered many rust spots to huge cracks, to explain to you the speed of sinking(the ship is almost all rusty red).

[Hiei0dark0duke]

well actually there was alot of really awsome metal on there that they stripped from it and sold for alot of money then when they were done salvaging it they sunk it

[TIMMAXJETT]

bodybager, Man, I know you mean well. But YOU should really, no, I mean REALLY think your contributions through before you press the 'Post Comment' button. You come across as a whingey whiney, 'war is bad, environment is good' twat. You undermine your cause and all that you stand for. So please think of the implications of what you write in the larger context. Thanks and peace.

[zverraban]

Make artificial reefs, not war!

[kijf789]

use your head bodybager. if this was the navy putting a painful past behind us why wouldn't they have quietly scrapped it instead of making a huge spectacle?

[coralseaclyde]

I helped strip the O boat in Alameda. My carrier cv-43 is scrap..sad.

[seadog1988]

woot grate viedo my town made a little history

[graphicdesigner20]

Our American military men sacrifice their lives to protect that ship! I can't believe they did that! Just shows how our screwed up our country is.

[Bowzzzer]

why not just scrap it waste of metal

[bodybager]

You still think the NAVY blew this up for the ENVIRONMENT? You think their ENGINEERS decided not to scrap this vessel?

Your personal contempt for knowledge doesn't change the fact that sinking this vessel resulted in more harm than benefit, both economically and environmentally.

The Oriskany will be remembered for the controversial bombing campaign of North Vietnam that divided our nation.

This wasn't about a reef. This was about putting a painful past behind us.

[greenseaships]

Bodybager- it's about whatever you want it to be.

[hamilton1776]

The Oriskany was scrapped because its service life was up. 1) There is only so much wear and tear a carrier can withstand; 2) The Oriskany was non-nuclear -- so it really wasn't the kind of carrier the U.S. Navy needed.

Your philosophical rant about Vietnam had nothing to do with its scrapping. Get real.

[bodybager]

Next time you buy a car, put your money where your mouth is... instead of trading it in for $3,000 cash value, pour $1,000 of kerosene in and torch it so it can become a squirrel habitat.

This is EXACTLY what the Navy did... at a scale 10,000 times larger. Now, who should get real?

It wouldn't make sense unless you're a real bonehead. But if you do torch your car, please film it and post it on YouTube. The squirrels will happily occupy your burned out car.

[jrnannery]

A controversial bombing campaign that divided our nation? That would have been the hippy anarchists, not the Oriskany. The O is a ship, and ships don't do anything without orders. Blame the Democrat politicians, not a proud carrier, for the war.

[bodybager]

You mean a rich asshole president from Texas who didn't mind sending teenagers to die so his buddies could profit?

Perhaps you need to touch the names on The Wall in DC and see how huge that wall is and how small the names are and then ask yourself how much smaller that wall would be - how much less unnecessary grief and death in vain there would have been if we listened to those "hippy anarchists."

[easye1989]

bodybager I happen to be an Electrician's MAte in the United States Navy and I must say that everything you have posted is bullshit. This Essex Class carrier was crippled due to age and rust for the most part. We "ENGINEERS" could not scrap rust I hope you realize that. Another thing, the Navy protects YOU and everybody else who insults the Navy. I myself protect this country as a "Snipe" and advise you to not insult the World's Finest Navy! You may regret it by meeting a few pissed off Sailors!

[bodybager]

Enlisted men had no say in this process whatsoever. Why would they be pissed off at me for pointing out that top brass and DC politicians did this?

Some people think the DC political system can do no wrong.

It can, and it does make mistakes. This ship would have provided hundreds of salvage jobs and would have increased steel supply (more construction jobs) when prices were at an all-time high. Rusty metal scraps just fine.

This is economics. Not an insult to those that serve.

[pogo4500]

ive seen the aircraft carrier before i live near in pensacola it's sticking out of the gulf and their are alot of fish there really easy to catch fish there

[montoya6k]

If i where them they should give or sell it on philippines :(

[bodybager]

Nice to know that when there is a world shortage of steel, and metals at all-time high prices, the fine folks at Uncle Sam Incorporated decided to donate 27,000 tons of steel to the fishies. Today's retail price for that much steel? About $36,000,000.

Perhaps they were worried about depressing steel futures? Or maybe just stupid as a damn rock.

[baba678]

Or maybe, they just care about the environment and thought that this is a good donation, smartass.

[bodybager]

You must have gone to the gifted school! Since they didn't recycle it, over 65 million more pounds of iron ore will be mined, 37.5 million more lb of coal will be mined, and 3.3 million more lb of limestone will be mined. Then, these will be smelted and produce heavy metal pollutants, Sulfur Dioxide, and acid rain. (Fish just love mercury!)

I've got an idea for a better "donation." ...a brain that CHECKS ITS FACTS before telling the fingers to press the "Post Comment" button.

[baba678]

Right, I'm sure you little braniac are just smarter than all these Navy engineers put together. We had a name for kids like you in High School - a no-life nerd.

[roaklin]

You didn't do your homework, its US Enviromental Law that prevents warships of this scale being scrapped in US waters and because its a US warship it can't be sold for scrap to an over seas buyer for security reasons so it was sunk instead. What an enemy nation could possibly learn from a WW2 relic is beyond me, but since when has Congress ever made sense?

[Bullettube]

I think it's because so far no company has been able to successfully scrap such a large and complicated ship. Besides, there was pressure from mining, steel and ship building interests to sink her. Building a new ship is more profitable for all those concerned.

[theredraven]

No company so far?

Most of these class of carriers were scrapped. Same for some of the older "Supercarriers". A lot of the "Mighty O's" sisters were broken by the scrapmans hammer and not by this method.

[Bullettube]

Check out The "Haze Grey" website for info on how badly the scrapping of the USS Coral Sea went. There is still a lot of controversy surrounding the planned sinking of the USS Forestal.

[theredraven]

Yeah but most of the Essex lot were scrapped without problems.

Still, I see what you mean. I don't see why they don't sell them to an ally like us in the UK to scrap. I reckon we could try it. You wouldn't have to worry about selling it to an "enemy nation"

[Bullettube]

The Essex class were easy, they displaced 33k tons and were about 19k tons at launch. That's 19k tons of non-armor grade mild to hard steel, easy to re-smelt. But a Forestal or Nimitz displaces 70k tons (Naval, not Merchant marine displ.) which means about 40k tons of high grade steel. Re-smelting would be a difficult, the chromium, manganese, and titanium would require as much energy to separate as it took to smelt in the first place. Lots to think about here.

[Bullettube]

To clarify to those who don't know. These ships have tons of asbestos and glass wool insulation packed in everywhere. Check out on the web the stories coming from India of the health hazards and the environmental messes being made. Old oil tankers, a witches brew of chemical residue and who knows what else is being dumped illegally all over the coasts of India and Africa.

[randomeddy]

Why is there a car parked on there.

[joonijoon]

They should have sold it.

[MorbiusX]

My father worked on this project in terms of safety and asbestos removal. The sinking was delayed several times to ensure that all the appropriate environmental concerns were addressed. After being cleared, the Oriskany will now be an extraordinary diving experience.

[MorbiusX]

My father actually worked on the project to dismantle the Oriskany.  The project was delayed several months to ensure that the environmental precautions were taken. All in all the ship will have a new life as a phenomenal diving experience.

[WhiteCamry]

You just have to worry about those naval experts who expected a 5-hour sinking but got a 35-minute one instead.

[Gator2454448]

decontaminated ? this wasnt a nuclear powered carrier

[Toolpusher]

Asbestos? Petroleum? Need I say more?

[Sammyoak]

no it wouldnt and besides the Oriskany went down stern first

[Soupdragon1964]

That's why it would have been funny! Sad end to a fine ship though, but better than going to the breakers?

[AdamArmand]

its a pity they couldnt stick Leo DiCaprio on the poop, that would have been hil-arious.

[Toolpusher]

Maybe an undignified end for a grand ship, but hopefully, seeing as she's been totally decontaminated etc, she'll make a fine reef, good habitat for wildlife.