from
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060517/NEWS01/60517002/1006
Published - May, 17, 2006
UPDATE 11 a.m.: Oriskany has sunk
Larry Wheeler
11 a.m.: Oriskany has sunk. The last tip of the Oriskany's hurricane bow disappeared into the Gulf at approximately 11 a.m., approximately 36 minutes from the first explosions. It did not go down the way the Navy engineers had hoped. It went down stern first. Charter boats marked the sinking by sounding their horns.
The bow is sticking up, straining the heavy metal anchor lines. The port side bow line apears to be submerged. Clouds of debris can be seen moving out of the hangar deck. The stern is totally submerged. Large bubbling frothy water at the stern. The bow is heavily inclined upward. Clouds of smoke and debris. The ship is halfway submerged. Towlines are straining at the bow. Stern totally submerged. Air is rushing to the surfance. Oriskany is almost three quarters submerged.
The 50-foot boat with the explosive generator and electronics gear remains intact on the flight deck surface. The boat is expected to float away from the carrier after the Oriskany is fully submerged.
Acrid smoke from the explosion deep in Oriskany's hull has drifted away, revealing the old carrier's silhouette. The former warship's stern now appears to be lower than its bow.
Large openings in the portside hull, below the hangar deck level appear to be very close to the water line. Seas and winds have picked up slightly.
A Navy H3 helicopter is now hovering very close to the water near the ship.
There is an unconfirmed report on the radio of a capsized boat. There is neither official nor visual confirmation of that at this time, however.
Florida and local officials expressed relief that the aircraft carrier's scuttling is under way.
"I'm doing real well now that this is finally happening," said Robert Turpin, Escambia County marine resources chief, over the radio.
The 10:24 a.m. explosions that are sending Oriskany to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico could be heard and felt clearly a mile away. Light was visible and smoke billowed from the hangar deck.
After the second of the flashes, the carrier appeared to be in the same relative position, not moving in anyway.
The horizon was dotted with white charter vessels, sailboats, law enforcement vessels, all ringing the ship, waiting and watching. A Navy jet flew overhead, while an H3 helicopter hovered within a mile of the carrier. The small vessle that had been tucked at the stern had long since left.
Oriskany's port side was brightly illuminated by the morning sun, revealing large holes cut in the hull below the hangar deck.
The carrier's bow was clearly leaning lower than the stern, the result of pre-flooding several forward tanks.
The decommissioned aircraft carrier appeared to be riding low in the water. Her hangar deck was wide open, showing just the steel frame where plates were formerly attached.
