The USS Independence, a WWII Carrier That Survived Two Atomic Bombs, Lies Off San Francisco
The USS Independence fought across the Pacific, survived two atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll and was sunk off San Francisco in 1951. Found in 2015, it’s now a deep-sea reef.
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About 30 miles off San Francisco, half a mile down, sits a World War II aircraft carrier that survived two atomic bombs. It’s the USS Independence, and its story goes from some of the biggest naval battles in history to the first nuclear tests after the war to a quiet spot on the bottom of the Pacific, where it’s now covered in corals and sponges.
The Independence started life as the hull of a Cleveland-class light cruiser and was turned into a carrier by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation It was commissioned in January 1943 and sent straight to the Pacific, where it joined early attacks on Rabaul and Tarawa Japanese planes torpedoed it in late 1943, and it spent the first half of 1944 being repaired in San Francisco. Back in action, it launched strikes on Luzon and Okinawa and was part of the carrier group that went after what was left of the Japanese Mobile Fleet during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, along with other Japanese ships in the Surigao Strait.
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It also fought at Tarawa, Kwajalein and the Marianas, and kept hitting targets in the Philippines and Japan until Japan surrendered. After that, it supported the occupation forces and then joined Operation Magic Carpet, the huge effort to bring more than eight million American service members home from Europe, the Pacific and Asia.
Aerial view of ex-USS Independence at anchor in San Francisco Bay, California, January 1951. There is visible damage from the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. (San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park)
Most ships that made it through the war were retired or scrapped. The Independence got a stranger assignment. In 1946, the Navy used it as a target in Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll, to see what atomic bombs would do to a fleet. The carrier sat near ground zero for both the “Able” and “Baker” blasts. It didn’t sink, but it was wrecked and badly contaminated with radiation. The Navy towed it back to San Francisco Bay and studied it to learn how radiation affected ships.
The “Baker” atomic blast, part of Operation Crossroads
In January 1951, the Navy sank the Independence on purpose off California, in what is now the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and near the Farallon Islands. Then it sat there, unseen, for more than 60 years. In 2015, NOAA and partners including Boeing found it with sonar, about 2,600 feet down and 30 miles off San Francisco. It was in surprisingly good shape. The cold, dark water had preserved much of the hull and flight deck.
The U.S. Navy light aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVL-22) afire aft, soon after the atomic bomb air burst test “Able”
at Bikini Atoll on 1 July 1946. (US NAVY)
In 2016, the exploration ship Nautilus, run by the Ocean Exploration Trust, sent robots down for a closer look, working with NOAA scientists and archaeologists. The remotely operated vehicles’ cameras showed the carrier’s guns, parts of aircraft still on board and other gear from its time as a test target.
Part of an aircraft on the USS Independence seen during the NOAA / Nautilus expedition off the coast of California. (NOAA)
The best surprise was the life. The old carrier has turned into a deep-sea reef. Corals, sponges, crabs and fish have moved onto the guns and decks of a ship that was once too radioactive to go near. (Here’s a study on how sunken ships become reefs.)
The shipwreck site of the former aircraft carrier, Independence , is located in the northern region of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
That makes the wreck interesting to scientists for more than its history. It’s a rare place to see how deep-sea life settles on a big man-made structure, and one with a radioactive past at that.
Guns on the USS Independence off the coast of California, now covered in corals, sponges and fish (NOAA)
Just finding and filming it took serious technology: deep-water sonar, robotic submarines and teams from several organizations working together. It’s a good example of how much of our history is sitting on the seafloor, waiting for someone with the right tools to go look.
So the next time you’re looking out at the ocean from the Golden Gate, remember that somewhere out past the Farallones, a carrier that fought across the Pacific and took two atomic bombs is sitting in the dark, with fish swimming through it.
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