In our third look at the wreck of USS Lexington, we return…to the debris field. I only briefly touched on this, in my first video on this wreck. And, aircraft aside, not at all in the second.
For this video, we’ll be focusing entirely on the debris field. Excepting the aforementioned aircraft, as I already have a dedicated video on that topic.
On this wreck, the debris ranges from pieces as large as the bridge, right down to more personal items. And, obvious damage aside, every piece is remarkably well preserved. Right down to paint and legible writing. Not uncommon on deep American wrecks in the Pacific. Yet, still notable.
Lexington Video:
https://youtu.be/eMp5FDScf4o
Lexington Wreck:
https://youtu.be/qXVIydlz5Bw
Lexington Aircraft Wrecks:
https://youtu.be/tZRPGGkv684
Pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1675447195824088&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1671179182917556&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1667892096579598&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1669510073084467&type=3
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1666468580055283&type=3
source
The Lexington is absolutely the Titanic of the South Pacific. They both the same length, sunk in major pieces in similar depths almost the same distance from a British colony. And both have a sister that sank in one piece but shallow enough to dive on.
The 20mm is there. You can see the bet barrel by the splinter shielx.
The fire control station was the 5" control station where the Mk.19 fire control directors would have been placed on either side. The 8" mounts were removed earlier at Pearl Harbor and replaced with 1.1" quad mounts and the 8" fire control directors which were fore and aft removed also. The CXAM air search radar was at the top of mast. This was a flat panel "wire mattress" as shown. The "x" configuration of the debris is probably something else.
Re the 20mm I still find it funny that the Allies used basically the same gun as their premier AA gun that the axis used as their fighter cannon in the Me 109E and A6M2 zero. Apart from some field improvisations neither germany nor japan ever used the Oerlikon 20mm in a ground role and replaced it with more advanced guns on fighters. Also that gun was basically a development of the german WW1 Becker 20mm aircraft cannon
One of the interesting things is that Lexington CV-2 was sunk by planes from Zuikaku and Shokaku, and the final blows to sink Zuikaku came from Lexington CV-16.
Not as pretty as she was but still a lady till this day.
That wifi card is a scam. check the device on google
Those Mk 15 destroyer torpedoes were as about as bad as the Mk 14 submarine torpedoes. Robert A. Heinlein, the science fiction writer, was a radio operator aboard Lexington in 1931.
Too bad the navy doesn't also reuse admiral's names. When they get their star they can choose a new name, like popes and English kings. Admiral Nimitz lll. 😊
I got to wonder around the USS Lexington CV16 museum alone, at night. One of the most awesome things I ever did.
Luckily, my great uncle survived the battle of coral sea. He also survived Pearl Harbor. Eight hours after surgery he was helping evacuate personnel off a hospital ship.
I forget they called Lexington the fighting lady.
I'll bet that China has already stripped the wreck…
The USS Lexington had a library, all those books are now on the bottom of the Coral Sea — what a waste.
Good Day. Very interesting and informative. Thank You.
Yep, Navy re-uses names. The USS Juneau (CL-52) was sunk at the Battle of Guadalcanal. I served onboard the USS Juneau (LPD-10) in the 70's-80's. It is now decommissioned
I'm a lifelong military historian and I cannot fathom why such honored names like Lexington, Saratoga, Wasp and Yorktown lie fallow and Swabbie Inc. insists on naming ships after political weasels like John Stennis, Gerald Ford, and Bill Clinton. I mean, you know the Ford is gonna be nicknamed 'Chevy' or 'China Trip' and people are already calling the Clinton 'Slick Willy' and her keel isn't even laid yet!
That last photo. Wow.
I heard a Val-Dive bomber,-crash-dived,-on the Lexington,-with its bomb-right near the "Bridge-Funnel"area-where the pilots-came out on deck-
I think that on the "Dog–Fights"-show years ago,-If a ship is impossible to be saved and will sink on its own? Then why scuttle it?
Very good video.. As a saxophone player, the horn really did drive home the personal loss. RIP to the crew who didnt survive.
The object arrowed at 10.55 looks to me like the base of a gun mount with its traversing ring visible at the outer edge of the circle and its operating and training power supply coming up through the middle, given the sheer size and amount of the retaining bolts around the edge of the mounting plate I would imagine it was possibly a forty millimeter twin barrel high angle anti aircraft gun weighing around seven tons, on the left hand side seems to be whats left of the circular blast shield built around such weapons..
I just served pot roast
Like the USS Iowa is a museum yet there is a new USS iowa. Of course BB-61 is the best
Thank you, for the well-done video.
There was a very friendly short man that went by the name of Maxi who walked our neighborhood daily. He lived just up the street from my parent's home and when I saw him in later years, he was always wearing his Lexington cap. He once talked to me about his time on the ship which included the sinking. Wish now that I had wrote it all down immediately after. Maxi was very well liked because of his sincere friendliness to all. He looked much younger than his age, I believe he passed on at 96 still active to the end.
electrical item might be a slip ring assembly for something designed to rotate.
Need to raise the ship and restore it back into service.
I'll never understand how Petrel did an extremely long, extensive video of their Musashi discovery, but we saw so little video and footage from Indianapolis and others…
These are EXTREMELY historic discovery expeditions…
I once asked this question on Petrel's Instagram, if they ever intended to release these videos and photo journals in full, or to create a long-form documentary like NatGeo did with Ballard's discoveries, and they simply said "no, never"…
Lol, WHAT?
It kinda strikes me as odd, to spend that kind of money and years of research, only to post a couple pictures.
Not disparaging Petrel, but it kinda comes off like they were just trying to find as many as possible to say they did, given there's no extensive documentaries and they seemed to indicate no desire to share
I grabbed my head when i saw the birds laying on the bottom
Lol like Star Trek that’s why we have 6x enterprise ships just with a letter change at the end of the ship number
Recycling ships' names down the years is common practice fo rmany navies worldwide. Nothing new about it.
Such a shame to let the aircraft sit and rot they have ways to bring them up they should be restored to flying condtion
How about a video on the USS Sims DD-409) ?
My uncle served on both Lexingtons during WWII. Aviation ordinance mate.