Hawaiian Island Cruise

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Saturday, 7 January 2023

Overnight we sailed to Honolulu and early in the morning we left the cruise. We went to our hotel and picked up a guide who would take us to the exhibits at Pearl Harbor.

The first stop was at the Battleship Missouri. Completed in 1944, she is the last battleship commissioned by the United States. The ship was assigned to the Pacific Theater during World War II, where she participated in the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands. Her quarterdeck was the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan, which ended World War II.

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The Battleship Missouri later fought in the Korean War during two tours between 1950 and 1953. Missouri was reactivated and modernized in 1984. Cruise missile and anti-ship missile launchers were added along with updated electronics. The ship served in the Persian Gulf escorting oil tankers during threats from Iran, often while keeping her fire-control systems trained on land-based Iranian missile launchers. She served in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 including providing fire support.
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Virginia Ann standing next to a replica of the shells the Missouri fires out of its big guns.
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Modern radar and weapons systems on the old girl.
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A battleship's big guns. The main battery of the Missouri consisted of nine 16-inch guns - here are six of them.
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Liz Brooks takes charge of the battleship tour.
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Missouri was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after the US state of Missouri. The ship was launched on 29 January 1944 before a crowd of 20,000 to 30,000 spectators. At the launching ceremony, the ship was christened by Margaret Truman, the ship sponsor and daughter of Harry S. Truman, then one of the senators from the ship's namesake state.
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The USS Oklahoma was commissioned in 1916 serving in WWI and the Spanish War. During the attack on Pearl Harbor, she was hit eight times and sunk quickly turning over while burning. Too damaged to be refit she was sold for salvage and sunk while being towed from Oahu to San Francisco.
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Four hundred twenty-nine of her officers and enlisted men were killed or missing. Only 35 of the 429 sailors and Marines who died in Oklahoma were identified in the years following the attack.

The memorial to the Oklahoma is outside the USS Missouri Battleship museum - as the Missouri is docked in the place the Oklahoma was when she was attacked.
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We then traveled by boat to the USS Arizona Memorial, which was built in 1962 and visited by more than 2 million people a year.

During WW II the superstructure was removed leaving the submerged hull below water.
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The USS Arizona Memorial marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines killed on USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
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Arizona is no longer in commission, but is an active U.S. military cemetery. As survivors of the attack on Arizona pass away, many choose either to have their ashes scattered in the water over the ship, or to have their urns placed within the well of the barbette of Turret No. 4.
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From the memorial you can look down on the hull of the Arizona just feet away.
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Gun turret number three rises above the water.
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The hull of the Arizona.
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The flagpole is connected to a mast of the Arizona below the water.
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Oil leaking from the sunken battleship can still be seen rising from the wreckage to the water's surface. This oil is sometimes referred to as "the tears of the Arizona".
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Oil seen on the water at several places.
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Close up of the rusty hull with colorful sea creatures.
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The USS Missouri seen from the Arizona Memorial. Turret number two is seen low in the water.
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Commissioned in 1916, Arizona stayed stateside during World War I. Later on she was sent to the Pacific Fleet, based in Pearl Harbor.

The USS Arizona was hit multiple times in the first few minutes of the attack. One bomb penetrated the armored deck near the ammunition magazines in the forward section of the ship, causing a massive explosion and killing 1,177 of the sailors and Marines on board.
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Our last stop on our tour of Pearl Harbor was to the USS Bowfin - a submarine commissioned in 1942. The submarine served in the Pacific during WW II. Then used as a training ship until 1987 when she became a museum.
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The forward torpedo hatch with a torpedo in the tube.
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The sub was set in the 1940s period.
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Lots of brass used in the sub - no sparks - still a lot to maintain.
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Looking up into the conning tower of the sub - we could not go up - it was pretty narrow anyway.
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Brass all over the engine room.
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Small fitting with the name of the ship and marks made by the crew to properly align the two pieces.
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All the old dials were neat, but this one had a little curley copper pipe fitting.
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The emblems on the side of the conning tower are indicating the number of ships sunk by the Bowfin.
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A picture of the memorial located in the museum park of the USS Bowfin. The memorial commemorates the 52 American submarines, which sank in the Second World War, and the more than 3,500 crew members who were killed. Each stone represents a sunken submarine. Written on it is a brief history of the submarine and the names of the sailors who fell.
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