First Photos of USS New Orleans Bow in 80 Years
During our Maritime Archaeology of Guadalcanal: Iron Bottom Sound (NA173) expedition, the Corps of Exploration located and imaged the bow blown off the World War II heavy cruiser USS New Orleans for the first time. Using an ROV to investigate a target found during seafloor mapping operations by University of New Hampshire’s uncrewed surface vessel DriX, the team found the bow resting at ~675 meters deep in the Solomon Islands’ Iron Bottom Sound and reilluminated this improbable story.
During the November 1942 Battle of Tassafaronga offshore of Guadalcanal, USS New Orleans was hit by a Japanese ‘Long Lance’ torpedo, catastrophically detonating the forward magazines and tearing off nearly one-third of the ship, including the bow. The explosion killed over 180 crew. Bow-less and flooding, New Orleans was heroically saved by crew members, who stayed at their posts and saved their ship but not themselves, receiving three posthumous Navy Crosses. The ship limped back to the nearby harbor, where, using coconut logs, the crew was able to stabilize New Orleans well enough to sail backward to the United States for permanent repairs.
Maritime Archaeology of Guadalcanal: Iron Bottom Sound
Located in the Solomon Islands between the islands of Guadalcanal, Savo, and Nggela, Iron Bottom Sound was the stage of five major naval battles between August and December 1942 which resulted in the loss of over 20,000 lives, 111 naval vessels, and 1,450 planes. These underwater cultural heritage sites now rest on the seafloor offshore Honiara in a confined area less than 25 nautical miles wide, 40 nautical miles long, and 1,400 meters deep.
