Photos show WWII warship sinking at a naval park in New York. Why is this happening?
A World War II warship — USS The Sullivans — is slowly sinking at America’s largest inland naval park in New York, photos show.
Water enveloped half of the historic ship’s deck around the afternoon on Thursday, April 14, at Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park in western New York, according to an image shared by Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz.
But why is the 79-year-old retired destroyer, which famously shot down eight Japanese planes in the Pacific theater during WWII, sinking?
Well, it experienced a “serious hull breach” on Wednesday, and crews are working to “minimize damage, and remove water from the ship,” the park wrote April 14 on Facebook.
“We are confident that we are going to be able to correct the situation. It doesn’t look very good. But we are going to be back on this as soon as we can find out what is the cause,” naval park President Paul Marzello told WIVB.
“There is no chance that the ship (is) actually going to sink.”
Divers arrived on the scene around 2:30 p.m. and will “pump out rooms and hopefully identify where the water is coming in the ship,” Poloncarz wrote in an update with more photos.
It was previously reported that the ship was at risk of sinking after bad weather damaged the hull in February 2021, according to Spectrum News.
The history of the ship
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the USS The Sullivans a “treasure and symbol of perseverance” in a statement on April 14.
The 376-feet long Fletcher-class destroyer was named in honor of five brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, after they died in a naval battle in the Pacific aboard the Juneau ship on Nov. 13, 1942, during WWII, according to Naval History and Heritage Command.
Hochul wrote that the ship “is a tribute to our heroes — to a family that lost all five of its sons in the Pacific, and to the 400,000 Americans who died fighting in World War II.”
During the war, the ship also was known for “bombarding Iwo Jima and Okinawa,” two Japanese islands, “as well as rescuing American pilots and crew from burning or sinking vessels,” according to the naval park.
It was also involved in the Korean War and the Cuban missile crisis before it was retired in 1965.
“We were just at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park yesterday honoring veterans and join the community in being shocked and sickened to see The Sullivans taking on water to this extent today,” Congressman Brian Higgins, of Western New York, wrote in a statement April 14.
Higgins added that the 79th anniversary of the ship’s launch was 10 days ago when $490,000 in federal funding was awarded to “support repairs needed to protect the ship.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 1:14 PM with the headline "Photos show WWII warship sinking at a naval park in New York. Why is this happening?."
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