Peer Into a Fallen Battleship at Pearl Harbor | National Geographic
Here we are at the number one guns of the USS Arizona. Oftentimes diving on the USS Arizona, we come across artifacts like this shoe or boot sole. It's artifacts like this that remind us of the human connection of the ship and those who lost their lives here on December 7th, 1941.
Here we are in the galley area, or kitchen, of the Arizona. These octagonal tiles would have been the floor. This is the area where sailors would have been getting their breakfast when those bombs started raining down.
This is an area of the ship where you can really see the devastation and the destruction. It was here that the ship buckled after the detonation of the forward magazine. You can see here where the deck is simply just broken and torn, falling away, sloping down to where that ammunition bunker exploded.
We're swimming now in the stern of the Arizona, and we come across a hatch with stairs that lead down to something that was called officer country. It was below this deck where the Admiral, the Captain, and other officers had their staterooms and cabins. Today, 75 years of marine incrustation and sediment has meant that this hatch really leads nowhere.
And here we have some coke bottles that have been mapped and tagged by Park Service archaeologists. Most of the artifacts on the deck were tagged and inventoried on a regular basis. This large circular base is actually the foundation of the number four guns. This is the area where survivors who decided to be laid to rest inside the ship. This is where we place the remains during military ceremonies and special events.