Joe Reschke 8E #19
December 9, 2013
Research Paper
There are about 3-4 million shipwrecks in the world. The shipwrecks are mostly spread in the Great Lakes and in the Oceans. Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum estimates that about 6,000 ships are wrecked on the bottom of the Great Lakes. The United Nations estimates about 3 million shipwrecks on the ocean floor.
The great lakes, which can be seen from space, are the largest freshwater system in the world. The lakes are home to 3,500 species of plants and animals, 170 fish species, they contain 21% of the worlds freshwater, and they cover 95,160 square miles. They are home to about 6,000 shipwrecks. - Graph By: David Swayne of Great Lakes History.com This Graph represents the distribution of shipwrecks over various lakes. It show us that most shipwrecks that happen in lakes happen in the great lakes. The first ship (not including canoes) to ever travel on the Great Lakes, The Griffon, was shipwrecked. It was wrecked in a violent storm on Lake Huron.
The ocean covers 70% of the Earth’s surface. The largest ocean on Earth is the Pacific Ocean. It covers around 30% of the Earth’s surface, and the Pacific Ocean contains around 25,000 different islands, many more than are found in Earth’s other oceans and, there are about 350 shark species in all of the oceans.
Have you ever seen a shipwreck and wondered how it sunk or just wondered how ships sink in general? There are many reasons why boats sink. Ships are made to be on top of the water so when a wave brings water on top of the boat it will most likely cause it to sink. One of the most common ways for a boat to sink is when a boat finds itself in a massive storm and it gets engulfed with waves making water come on the b...
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...while at Pearl Harbor. Her bow was severed and wrecked her command room. The main part of the ship and stern were still intact. The Shaw was temporarily repaired and returned to battle in The Battle of Santa Cruz Islands. The ship wrecked once again in January 1943. It ran aground near New Caledonia and this time returned for major repairs. After it was
“Reschke 7” repaired again it was sent back to the warzone in October or 1943. It wasn’t done wrecking yet. In December 1943, The U.S.S. Shaw was hit with an air attack near Cape Gloucester. It once again had to go back for major repairs. Following those repairs The Shaw participated in the Invasion Of Guam. Subsequent to that in October 1944- 1945 it escorted pacific convoys to liberate Luzon and other parts of the Philippines. When the Pacific War ended the Shaw was scrapped.
“Reschke 8”
The American Turtle was ready for her initial mission on September 6, 1776, just after midnight in the New York Harbor. The operator, Ezra Lee, failed in his attempt to sink the HMS Eagle because he failed to secure the screw of the gunpowder magazine to the ship. The Turtle made two more attempts to sink enemy ships but they both failed. The end of the American Turtle is unknown. Some think she was accidentally sunk, dismantled, or destroyed. The Turtle was the very first submarine to be used in the...
The USS Indianapolis was a heavy cruiser. She did not have heavy armor which made her vulnerable to torpedo attacks. She had been ordered to sail on July 16, 1945, to deliver a bomb that would end the war. Unfortunately, it sank before it arrived.
All 29 sailors perished with the Edmund Fitzgerald on November 10th 1975. If you want to learn more about the ship you can visit the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point. A place where they proudly displayed the recovered ships bell in remembrance of the lost sailors and a place that is close to the final resting place of the ship.
The U.S.S. Arizona was in the United States Navy for a very long time before it was sunk. The reason why the U.S.S. Arizona was built was because it was part of America's pre-World War 1 modernization of the Navy. It was built in the Brooklyn Naval Yard with the other Pennsylvania class battleship. The builders of the U.S.S. Arizona started the layouts on March 16, 1914. It took a few years before the Arizona would finally be launched. The U.S.S. Arizona was put into commission on October 17, 1917. When it was built it was a very expensive ship. After all the construction was done the grand total for the ship was 12,993,579.23 dollars. When the Arizona was built it was considered to be a Pennsylvania class battle ship. This meant that it was an upgrade over the Nevada class battleship, which was the types they built before the Pennsylvania class. The main upgrades that they made was that they ships of the Pennsylvania class had two more main battery guns, a greater length and water displacement, and it had four propellers for a higher maximum speed. They also upgraded the size of the secondary battery guns. Because of this the U.S.S. Arizona carried a punch that no one would like to deal with. This consisted of four triple turrets for the main battery, and 22 single turret secondary battery. The Arizona also had many anti-aircraft guns for protection.
...tself 500ft below the water, none of them have been proven indefinitely. Whether the ship crossed the Superior Shoal, with water as shallow as 22 feet; or the ship suffered a stress fracture and broke apart on the surface, there will always be one more possibility regarding the Fitzgerald’s demise. For instance, the sip could have also succumbed to the forces of the Three Sisters, a Lake Superior phenomenon, consisting of massive waves. Ultimately, each of these current theories are merely conjectures, and since each holds the possibility of being true, the cause of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald’s sinking is an ongoing mystery, one that has and will continue to bring about many theories. Finally, as a result of the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, the 30 million people who lived next to the great lakes would forever look across their waters with renewed respect.
The USS Indianapolis (CA-35) was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 15 November 1932. The ship served with honor from Pearl Harbor through the last campaign of World War II, sinking in action two weeks before the end of the war. On 30 July 1945, while sailing from Guam to Leyte, Indianapolis was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-58. The ship capsized and sank in twelve minutes. Survivors were spotted by a patrol aircraft on 2 August. All air and surface units capable of rescue operations were dispatched to the scene at once, and the surrounding waters were thoroughly searched for survivors. Upon completion of the day and night search on 8 August, 316 men were rescued out of the crew of 1,199.
An American naval commander, Commodore Esek Hopkins, led a successful raid with a fleet of ships at Nassau in the Bahamas. There, he took supplies from a British supply base at Nassau and set on a return voyage back to the colonies. On his return voyage, he captured two British ships named the HMS Hawk and the HMS Bolton which were then manned by some of his crew. The fleet under his command sailed south of Block Island, Rhode Island as Hopkins wanted more prizes he can get a hold of before being docked at a harbor to unload his loot. Soon enough, one of the ships in the fleet spotted the HMS Glasgow, a British ship, several miles away. The HMS Glasgow under Captain Tryingham Howe, ran into Hopkins because it cruised off to Block Island before going to Virginia (which was its destination) to sail with other two ships, Hawk and Bolton, knowing they were there. Unknowing to Howe, the two ships were already captured by Hopkins. As a result, it ended up finding Hopkins’ fleet instead. Captain Howe wanted to know what ships were in company with the brig and to which Hopkins replied with “the Columbus and the Alfred, a tw...
Since commercial shipping began on the five Great Lakes, there have Been six thousand shipwrecks. Half have never been found. There are three storms
But, both large and small pieces of marine debris are known to reach depths of 100 feet.7 A 20-year study indicated that the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea have approximately 200,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer. And, according to the United Nations, there are an estimated 5 to 10 million tons of plastic floating through the ocean between California and
... (Lukee 3). Not one survivor emerged from the wreckage and the fate of the ship lasted unknown for almost three centuries (Lukee 2). The wrecked slave ship was found in 1972, during a magnetometer survey, operated by a subsidiary of Mel Fisher's Treasure Salvors, Inc (Lukee 4). Some artifacts were collected from the wreck that included bilboes and iron shackles that were used to restrain slaves (Lukee 4). When they realized that the wreck was most likely a slave ship and not a treasure ship, the company reburied the ancient findings and pieces of the ship hull that they had exposed and left the site.
As the water flooded into the first five compartments, the water would pass the water line. Once it passed the water line, the water would start to flood into the rest of the compartments like falling dominos. Since one-half of the ship kept flooding in with water, the water would slowly start to break the ship in half. Once one-half of the ship went under the other half that was floating above the water would snap and break off. Thus separating the Titanic into two pieces laying at the sea floor. The Titanic would ultimately sink on April 15, 1912. With the ship sinking, there are three factors on why the Titanic sank. The three factors are human error, corporate negligence, and design error. The three factors are equally responsible on why the ship sank.
The water temperature that night was below freezing. The wrought iron rivets that fastened the hull plates to the Titanic's main structure also failed because of brittle fracture during the collision with the iceberg. Low water temperatures contributed to this failure [Garzke and others, 1994].
The Titanic, one of the biggest well known tragedies in history. The horrific accident was a catastrophe that impacted the world. Devastating news that this colossal ship everyone thought was indestructible had sunk from a collision with an iceberg. But the question is, could the terrible tragedy have been stopped? Why did the Titanic give so easily following the hit?
The low-lying Caymans have always been a challenge to ships navigating the region. All three islands have reefs surrounding the majority of their coasts, and the islands themselves being so low; they are very difficult for approaching ships to see, especially at night. The islands are also located on several popular shipping routes used from colonial times to today. Ships leaving Central America passed the Caymans on their way to the Gulf of Mexico and the strait of Florida, allowing the Gulf Stream to carry them out to the Atlantic. Large numbers of ships and dangerous reef lined islands is a recipe for shipwrecks and the Caymans have seen more than their fair share.