Shipwrecks of Memory Excavating the Guadalcanal
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David Mindell Shipwrecks of Memory Excavating the Guadalcanal In the summer of 1992 I participated in an expedition to survey marine or ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle). Scorpio was con- and photograpli Japanese and American warships that sank dur- nected by a cable to the Limei/ Choiiest where a pilot and support ing the devastating battle of Guadalcanal, in 1942. The project crew controled its movement based on images sent up its tether was sponsored by the U.S. Navy and National Geographic. Using from video cameras mounted on the vehicle. Our operations ini- modern submarines to discover sunken naval vessels of a half- tially aimed to locate each of the wrecks laying in the depths of so- century ago overlaid modern and historical technology; the ma- named Iron Bottom Sound, the site of the sea-battle. A prelimi- chines of today observed the failed machines of the past in the nary expedition undertaken the previous fall had surveyed the strange and alien world of the deep ocean. Travel to the ocean's area with sonar (SOund NAvigation Ranging, like underwater ra- depths produces its own metaphoric associations, and as such it dar), producing maps which indicated dark shadows or "targets" provides a unique way of remembering modern industrial and at specific locations. The shadows contained enough detail to in- technological warfare and the terrain over which it sought mas- dicate the rough size, shape, and outline of a sunken ship but not tery. A techno-mythical narrative may be a necessary means to enough to positively determine its identity. The goal of the mis- explore a past that is itself increasingly techno-mythical. sion was to visit each target with the ROV, positi\'ely identify the ships, assess their condition, and record their appearance. The Our seaboard home and command station during the expedition process of identification, howe\er, relied on more than the evi- was the Lane\/ Clwuest, a 350 foot civilian research vessel on long- dence of the video screens in the ROV's control room aboard the term charter to the Navy. Two submersibles were deployed from Lmuy Choucst. Data collected from a variety of historical sources the ship to explore the wrecks, the Sea Cliff, a forty-foot submarine helped produce hypotheses about the identity of each target which which can carry a pilot and two observers to a depth of 20,000 feet were then tested by visual cues as the physical wreck painstak- for about twelve hours, and the Scorpio, an unmanned robotic sub- ingly came into view. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00584 by guest on 01 October 2021 staging the Battle destroyer entered Iron Bottom Sound from Astoria Found and Lost The island of Guadalcanal is over a hun- the Northwest, using Savo Island and its Now, nearly fifty years later to the day, our dred miles long and thirty miles wide, but cloud cover to hide from the Allied patrol. expedition is heading to a wreck that we only a small portion of it, toward the north- Savo Island, actually a small valcono, pro- think will be the Astoria, an American heavy east corner, was disputeci terrain during the trudes steeply up two thousand feet cruiser that sank at Savo Island. Astoria's World War 11. Like many islands in the straight out of the ocean. The cone looms crew had been caught unaware and unpre- South Pacific, Guadalcanal was volcanicly as an ominous presence over Iron Bottom pared, and wasted several crucial minutes formed, its only exceptional feature a small Sound. The Japanese force remained un- in the confusion of night battle at sea. Its shelf, a few miles wide, between the moun- detected until they rounded the island, airplane hangar had been set afire by a shell, tains and the ocean. In 1942 this shelf rep- achieving nearly complete surprise of the and the flame invited shots from four en- resented the only suitable topography for Allied force. Their blindness was partly emy ships. Astoria was abandoned and a major airfield in this part of the South due to their dependence on technology, re- sank at about noon on August 9. Our ship- Pacific. lying on innovations which were not com- board naval historian connects the circum- pletely effective when they were new. His- stances of the Astoria's sinking with the cur- On August 7, 1942, an amphibious division torian Richard Frank writes: rent target. It is 4;30 AM as the Laney of U.S. Marines landed on Guadalcanal and Chouest heads toward the estimated target captured its airport from the Japanese, re- Ships of the [Japanese] Imperial Navy detected location. naming it Henderson Field in honor of a their opponents by visual means before radar fallen Marine. The Japanese had been slow discovered their presence. The primitive radar We are working in the Scorpio "control van," to realize the airport's strategic importance in use at this time suffered drastic reduction of a trailer-sized shipping container welded to and the Marines faced only light resistance already limited detection ranges because of ech- the aft deck of the Lane]/ Chouest. Racks of from the small Japanese construction bat- oes from landmasses, a phenomenon not well un- video monitors, sonar equipment, and plot- talion which was still completing the run- derstood by Allied commanders, who were apt ting stations crowd a windowless, air-con- way. For the first few days after the Au- to repose excessive confidence in their electronic ditioned laboratory. A team of four navy gust 7 landing, American transports un- eyes.' petty officers operate the vehicle; the pilot loaded supplies and equipment for the "flies" Scorpio with a joystick and controls Marines to hold the airport. The Japanese The Japanese improved existing methods, its engineering systems; a sonar operator had been taken by surprise by the invasion; concentrating on their strength in optics tracks the bottom and scans ahead for ap- as time went on they became ever more de- and training. "By contrast, the Japanese proaching objects, a critical function as the termined to recapture the airfield from the sought and achieved maximum perfor- visibility through the video cameras is usu- still small American force. As each side mance from optics by utilizing specially ally less than twenty feet; a navigator tracks attempted to resupply and to protect their selected kiokouts equipped with outsized the location of the vehicle in three dimen- isolated troops fighting for control of binoculars.'" The Japanese came out of the sions using a separate sonar system, and Henderson Field, the area around night at high speed, decimated the Allied keeps in constant touch with the bridge to Guadalcanal was the site of the most con- ships, and disappeared around Savo Island direct ship movements; a navy watch leader centrated series of naval battles in history. heading North as quickly as they had ap- directs the entire operation, taking direction Formerly known as Indispensable Strait, the peared. from the historian and commanding and co- waterway was renamed Iron Bottom Sound ordinating the other three operators. All after nearly forty warships sank there in Occupying less than two hours from begin- concentrate on a set of video monitors pre- 1942 and early 1943. ning to end. The Battle of Savo Island was senting images from the cameras on the the worst defeat for the U.S. Navy since Scorpio, nearly a half mile below. The two forces had prepared to fight the Pearl Harbor, nearly a year before. The Al- war in different ways, largely because of the lies lost seven ships, including four cruis- The historian has collected information on different technologies they possessed and ers, with a total of 1077 men killed. Fortu- the ships which we expect to find, includ- the manner in which they were employed. nately, the Japanese did not decide to pur- ing drawings, photographs, battle reports, As a result of interwar treaty limitations, sue the vulnerable transports still unload- and various reported positions of sinking. the Japanese had fewer ships than the ing their gear The next morning, however. The geographic importance of Savo Island Americans. To make up for this weakness Marines on Guadalcanal, with less than is underscored by the fact that many sighted the Japanese trained specially in night-fight- twenty percent of their supplies unloaded, locations, from both sides, are given as a ing at sea. The Allies, with more and larger watched as the transports, deprived of pro- range and bearing from the volcano. Once ships, worked from a different doctrine, em- tection, withdrew with the remainder of the a wreck is found the historian directs phasizing long-range engagements in day- equipment. The defeat at Savo Island left Scorpiio's crew toward those features which hght, so they were unprepared for battle in the Marines stranded and unequipped to will yield positive identification. Some- darkness. Shortly after 1 AM on August 9, defend the island airbase that the Japanese times the definitive clue is provided by the a Japanese flotilla of seven cruisers and one desperately wanted back. ship's architecture and armanents, such as Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00584 by guest on 01 October 2021 'Wn\^^ the number of gun turrets, or the shape of a turrets of three eight-inch guns each, two used for aiming a gun; the technology we smokestack. Some of these ships were of forward and one aft. Just behind the bridge are using to explore these wrecks is a dis- the same design, however, and in these were two catapults for launching float tant but direct descendent of that aboard cases the distinguishing features are more planes and a hanger for storing the aircraft.