In a break from tradition- as an experiment -we will look at a single shipwreck in this video, instead of several. The subject of today’s video is USS Lexington, CV-2, as I found I could make a video focused entirely on her wreck.
A wreck split into multiple pieces, though each piece shows the same remarkable level of preservation as other deepwater American shipwrecks of the period.
The pictures, of course, coming from RV Petrel’s expedition to the wreck.
source
Time 01:59 – You can see some writing on the beam. Was it noted by the diver when he explored the wreck?? If so, what does it say?
The Lady Lex deservered her own video .What a brave ship
I always had a morbid fascination with shipwrecks. Thank you for making so many great videos on this topic
After seeing the wreck of the Yamato and its somewhat…. kit-form condition, you're certainly on the nose about Lexington suffering explosions after she sank
At least she sunk in a deep water and rather near the routes where Australian patrol crafts and navy warships frequently passes by, that would hopefully keep those Chinese grave robbers out of her for the time being.
I honestly worry about her wreck being illegally salvaged given the fate of wrecks in Java sea and around the South China sea (or what’s left of them). But at least her wreck being so deep would make it uneconomical for those jerks given how much the cost of equipment and other stuffs would outweigh the value. I mean, they haven’t touched those deep wrecks in Iron Button Sound so that should be a good sign.
Every dammn Dauntless should be raised and put together to one full plane for exhibition. No matter what the plane was a part of the turning point in the war, And i like it for it's cute rubber duck appearance.
The USS Yorktown was found to be in very good shape when was located back in 1998, with the wreck being 3 miles down.
Thank you!
Outstanding video in a very good overview of the wreck thank you sir
The technology used to find these wrecks is amazing, perhaps in the future it will be there to lift aircraft from the wrecks or small pieces but not if it intrudes into the inside and disturb any war grave area.
The Navy needs to recover those devistators.
The Navy has the equipment to do it
She delivered some serious American hurt on the Japanese before going down.
A fine video my friend! I did not know she was broken up, as bad as you showed 🙁
Personally , I'd be for raising the devastators.
If we could raise these aircraft, all could be restored to flying condition and then placed in a museum. When you look at the restoration of glacier girl or some of the more damaged aircraft recovered, it’s amazing what can be done
I did my initial carrier quals on her replacement.
Lady Lex and Sister Sara, carriers before the Navy knew what carriers were for. The Navy ddfaced the ladies with big gun turrets and seaplane catapults like they were removed unused.
Both ships were outfitted with biplanes of wood snd fabric that were light enough some of them could be lased to the overhead on the hangar deck, allowing each boat to have over 100 aircraft, way more than they were rated for. And way more than they had pilots for. Good to have spares when you are still writing The Book on how you do stuff.
I'm going to hazard a guess that not many,if any, of the crew are still around. I bet they would have some memories to tell. I say memories because saying stories makes it sound like they're not real. But we all know that what those men endured was never just a story. They got mentally scarred from what they saw. I hope they are remembered for the bravery they showed.
I was surprised that they were able to recover the Lexington because she was on fire for a long time oh, that was our strength Logistics and maintenance and support, but they took her in tow and they brought her back throwing water on her and but thank God the lot of the crew got off the ship the captain was quite magnificent in them, but I never thought that the lexikan could be recovered because of the intensity of the fires that she had, and I never knew the fire-control people had the ability to put out such a powerful fire that engulfed the entire ship, I would have thought as Commander will you know I don't want to get hit by Japanese or Torpedoes or anything like this so she has significant enough damage I think we should just recover the crew and get on with it, but they were able to bring this is the most incredible thing about American Ingenuity the bring a flaming hope now you know that the fires were intense the fire magazines had went off this Burning at high temperatures but they were able to that is a most amazing thing that I ever saw in my life as for these Crews and then on the Forrestal when the forest off caught on fire it was the worst catastrophe you could possibly imagine, and the fire Crews put it out
The WASP took significant damage if I recall correctly it was a previous landing ship
I never knew I always thought that the Lexington was towed back to port and refurbished I didn't know she's sunk but I knew she was hit badly and she was on fire, and this fire if they were able to withstand this and bring the ship back to Port I'm sure they would a refurbished her and put it back out to sea
During the Battle of Midway the Lexington was hit
Leave her alone, leave her boys alone.
Although I joined the Navy 36 years after she sunk I still feel a bond with my shipmates who met their end aboard her.
First time to your channel. Good job. Subscribing right now
Thanks for this 👍🇳🇿
One of the Ford class should have been named Lexington.
The current state of damage control at the time played a large role in her loss, poor practices and inexperience made her sinking inevitable. But the Navy learned from these mistakes and quickly developed proper and effective practices that saved many ships from being total losses. That the USS Franklin suffered far more damage yet sailed home under her own power is a testament to the new procedures effectiveness.
Never Forget 🇺🇸
Yes, a war grave, but I do believe in at least try and preserve parts of the wreack for future generations. They only come once in a life time. In a way puting some of the stuff in a museum helps preserve the memories and honor them that have died. I do not believe in saveing a hole ship, but at peast parts of to remember them.
The Fighting Lady, she and her crew waded into the enemy and threw haymakers til the end.
Better keep an eye on her. Chinese salvors are violating all kinds of wrecks,, including the WWII wrecks.
Paul Allen was a great man, financing all those expeditions to discover several WWII wrecks
My Dad served on the Lexington 1938-1940 as part of the Marine contingent. He loved the Lexington and my Mom told me when he heard it had been lost, he went down to the street corner and cried. I have the his photo album with the photos of his time on the "Lady LEX".
If all parties needed would sign off on it. The company that raised the Kursk would be a great place to start.
My best friend's grandfather served aboard the Lexington and was present at the Coral Sea engagement. He was later reassigned to the aircraft carrier USS Randolph for the duration of the war. ⚓ 🇺🇸
Is she laying up right
Uss Lexington was a American air craft carrier and it was bombed and torpedoed during battle of coral sea may 1942❤
The only reason Lexington was sacrificed was for two reasons one she was not a true aircraft carrier and second as long as she was afoat congress was hesitating to build new carriers
I saw the video released when they found Lexington. No one ever said that the wreck was in pieces. Interesting new info.
Thank you for sharing this important aspect of American history.
Go get those warbirds!
My grandfather Miles P Green was there when it sank ! He was first loader on the gun that was first shown a few years ago ! He was also a sea marine and was among those who reboarded the ship to retrieve documents and to try to skuttle her and was among the famous few that re – entered the galley and saved the ice cream ! He later joined the 4th marine Raiders and made it all the way to Okinawa when a mortar round sent him home ! He died in 2005 and is very missed especially his stories about the Lexington as he joined when he was 15 with his dead brothers birth certificate in 1936 and she was his home until the japs disabled her .
My high school friend's dad served on the Lexington when it went down. We were seniors in 1970. His family name was Martwick. The sinking affected his dad and he wouldn't talk about it. His brother in Chicago had a cat in the late 1960's. He was a cool cat, couldn't be bothered. They used him to film cat food commercials. If anybody ever saw Morris the Cat, his owner was the carrier sailor's brother, Martwick. My friend Bill Martwick worked as a ticket taker on the Queen Mary in Long Beach in the late 60's. Jacques Cousteau had a marine museum on board. One morning Jacques rolled in and Martwick demanded the $5 parking fee. He used to like to piss people off and Jaques Cousteau was just another target to him. $5 or you don't get in. Jacques threw a $5 bill at him and roared in to the parking lot cussing him out in French. If I didn't write this down, nobody would ever hear about these things.