Ballard, Navy locate WWII carrier Yorktown

Sea Power,  Jul 1998  

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A search expedition led by veteran oceanographer Robert Ballard has succeeded in locating and exploring the sunken aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV 5) in Pacific waters near Midway Island, site of the historic 1942 naval battle that turned the tide of battle in the Pacific.

The Yorktown was located in 16,650 feet of water on 19 May by the MR- 1, a towed sonar belonging to the University of Hawaii and deployed from the Navy's deep submergence support ship Laney Chouest. The Navy's remotely operated ATV (advanced tethered vehicle) was used to photograph the ship after it was located by the MR-1.

The expedition to find the Yorktown was sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the Institute for Exploration. Ballard, famous for his location of the R.M.S Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck, and his exploration of Iron Bottom Sound off Guadalcanal, said that the Yorktown had settled upright in 40 to 50 feet in the bottom sediment and is in excellent condition, with "no biological growth on her hull."

The expedition allowed the Navy to test its new technology for deep-sea exploration. "Our expedition to Midway represents exactly the kind of cooperation between the military, scientific, and academic communities the Navy seeks to promote in the exploration of our world's oceans," said Rear Adm. Malcolm I. Fages, director of submarine warfare in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. "In this case, we were able to exercise our equipment and ships in an extremely challenging deepsea environment almost three miles below the ocean's surface. This type of hands-on training experience is absolutely invaluable as we maintain and enhance the skills of our deep-submergence system operators."

Launched in 1936 and commissioned in 1937, the Yorktown, the Navy's fifth aircraft carrier, was heavily damaged by Japanese aircraft during the May 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea. Repaired at Pearl Harbor in only three days, the valiant carrier arrived off Midway in time to launch air strikes that helped to sink four Japanese aircraft carriers. She was abandoned after receiving severe damage from Japanese aircraft; a renewed effort to save her failed when she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine.

The U.S. destroyer Hammann, sunk while alongside the Yorktown, and the four sunken Japanese carriers were not located by the expedition. National Geographic officials said the Society will air an Explorer television documentary about the expedition on the TBS Superstation in early 1999. Accounts of the National Geographic Midway Expedition and of the Battle of Midway will be published in National Geographic magazine in 1999, the officials said.

Copyright Navy League of the United States Jul 1998
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