Intro
The USS Aaron Ward (DD-483) is definitely the highlight dive for most technical wreck divers visiting Iron Bottom Sound and I was fortunate to get 3 dives on her. I could literally spend a week diving that one wreck and not get bored.
The crew of the Aaron Ward used to sing “On Our Bow is 483, One of the Ships Japs Hate to See.”
The Aaron Ward transported — on the say she sank — none other than the future president, John F. Kennedy, on his way to take command of PT-109 and participated in “the most vicious half-hour of death and destruction ever recorded in the annals of naval sea fights.”
I wanted to dive the USS Atlanta (CL-51), but that is a very different type of trip since it is 430 feet deep and requires a focussed expedition. The Aaron Ward is still deep (225 fsw) but a lot more approachable than the USS Atlanta and is an epic wreck to dive.
The goal of this post is to become the canonical reference for future divers of the wreck. Below is a summary of the ship, her service, and then a lot of photos and diagrams of “what is where” on the wreck. Below is an overview diagram that will have more details later in the post:
USS Aaron Ward (DD-483)
The Aaron Ward was a Gleaves-class destroyer and the second ship to be named after Rear Admiral Aaron Ward who was a veteran of the Spanish-American war. She was laid down in Feb 1941, launched in November 1941, and commissioned on 4 March 1942.
They were building destroyers like crazy during WW2. In 1942 they built 81 destroyers and then in 1943 they built 128 Destroyers and 306 Destroyer Escorts — more than one per day getting finished. That is a crazy amount in a single year — and that doesn’t include Aircraft Carriers, Battleships, Cruisers, Land Craft, etc.
The ship is 350 feet long, has a beam of 36 feet, complement of 208 people and was outfitted to the gills as destroyers are. Her armament consisted of:
- 4 x 5″ Dual Purpose Guns
- 6 x .5″ guns
- 4 x 40mm Anti-Aircraft Guns
- 5 x 20mm Anti-Aircraft Guns
- 5 x 21 torpedo tubes
- 6 x depth charge projectors, 2 x depth charge racks
I’ve mentioned this in previous posts, but my favorite type of shipwreck are destroyers. The are big, but not too big and they have all sorts of cool and interesting armament. The Aaron Ward was retrofitted a few times and ended up with slightly different armament, but still had the four big 5″ guns, the torpedo tubs, depth racks, etc.
Note the four big 5″ guns with two forward of the bridge and then two aft of amidships.
War Service
Below is a summary of the major battles and duties that the Aaron Ward was involved in, including the epic Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942.
One person wrote in reference to the ship “if you want a slugging, death-defying, hell-roaring ship to nominate for everlasting glory — take the Aaron Ward, DD 483.“
17 Oct 1942
She served various duties in the Pacific during 1942 and was slated to participate in a shore bombardment at Guadalcanal on 17 October 1942. She started the day waiting for some passengers when 5 Japanese bombers attacked her. She responded with anti-aircraft fire along with one Marine guns on the shore. She started maneuvering to avoid the bombs and narrowly missed being hit. Between the Marines and the on-board anti-aircraft guns, they shot down three of the five Japanese bombers. She then took her passengers on-board and left for the bombardment area where she spent three hours shelling targets on-shore.
30 Oct 1942
After dropping depth charges in attempt to sink the submarine I-176 that attacked the cruiser Chester on 20 Oct, the Aaron Ward was once again bombarding Guadalcanal on 30 Oct 1942. She was with the USS Atlanta which was the flagship of Rear Admiral Norman Scott (which also sunk and is probably the most coveted wreck to dive in Iron Bottom Sound). The Aaron Ward bombarded the island with 711 rounds of 5″ shells before clearing the area.
13 Nov 1942
The Aaron Ward participated in the infamous “Naval Battle of Guadalcanal” in November 1942.
In “Bloody Friday off Guadalcanal” Lawrence Cortesi wrote “The nighttime brawl of Friday the thirteenth (was) the most vicious half-hour of death and destruction ever recorded in the annals of naval sea fights.” Wow.
She screened the transports which unloaded men and supplies on 11/12 November and then joined with a task force of eight other destroyers and five cruisers. They encountered a fleet of Japanese ships early the morning of 13 Nov and kicked off the battle. It was pure chaos that night. She engaged in multiple battles and had her fire director knocked out before receiving 8 direct hits. She headed out to clear waters and lost steering control at 2:25am and went dead in the water shortly thereafter with her engine room flooded. She struggled and crawled along until seeing the Japanese battleship Hiei while trying to get hooked up for a tow back to Tulagi. The Hiei fired a bunch of rounds against the Aaron Ward. Lucky for the Aaron Ward, planes dispatched from Henderson Field attacked the Hiei which ceased attacking her. She got back to Tulagi harbor via a tow but had lost 15 men with 57 wounded after the nine hits she took She left for Pearl Harbor for repairs and arrived on 20 Dec 1942 but she wasn’t done with Guadalcanal yet…
Admiral William “Bull” Halsey said “she avoided total destruction by apparently superhuman efforts of all hands. The superb performance of the engineers’ force in effecting temporary repairs … largely contributed to saving the ship.”
7 April 1943
The Aaron Ward was ordered to cover the landing of LST-449 off Togoma Point. An interesting point of history is that none other than Lt JG John F. Kennedy was on the LST-449 on his way to take command of PT-109 (which was famously rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomons).
The Aaron Ward was spotted by three Japanese planes which took up attack. The Aaron Ward fought back with her 20 mm and 40 mm guns and then the 5″ big guns. The Japanese airplanes dropped bombs which landed at or near the ship which proved catastrophic. The first bomb was a near miss and tore holes in the side of the ship which caused flooding. The second bomb hit the engine room which limited all electrical power on the ship including the 5″ and 40mm guns. The third bomb hit nearby and caused a hole in the port side near the engine room. Three more bombers attacked the ship as she swung around as she had lost power to the rudder. They all dropped bombs which didn’t hit the ship directly but were close and caused more damage.
She had withstood 4 near misses and 1 direct hit. The Navy produced the diagram below detailing the damage. You can see the four near misses off the port-side of the ship and the resulting damage along with the one direct hit just aft of amidships on the port side.
The crew struggled to keep the ship afloat.
One sailor, John G. Drew II, said “we worked below decks stuffing towels, mattresses, and anything we could find into the holes, shoring them up with timbers.”
Two other ships tried to help but she eventually succumbed and sank stern-first in 230 feet of water as she was trying to beach herself on a shoal near Tinete Point. She was only 600 yards from the shoal.
Below is a diagram of the path of the Aaron Ward in her final hours:
In total, twenty men died, fifty-nine were wounded and seven went missing. The Aaron Ward was awarded four battle stars for service in World War II.
The Wreck
The wreck of the USS Aaron Ward was first found and dove in September 1994 — about 50 years after she sank.
There is a mooring line attached to a mast on the starboard side just forward of the torpedo tubes amidships. The deck of the wreck is about 205 fsw (63m) and the sand at the deepest part of the wreck at the propellers is at 230 fsw (70m). The wreck is clearly starting to deteriorate after 80+ years in the water. She can also be swept by big currents so anybody who dives her needs to be prepared for that.
For me, it is the perfect wreck. It is deep enough to make it a challenging dive and one that isn’t done too often. But it isn’t so deep that deco obligation stacks up at crazy rates. It is also a destroyer which has an amazing history and a very interesting mix of armament.
The bow used to be pointed ~ 15 degrees upwards where she hit the reef but has since settled over the years and isn’t as elevated as she used to be. The stern used to also be elevated but seems to have settled down. There are many, many highlights to the wreck including:
- Torpedo tube table with live torpedos
- 4 x 5″ guns pointed skywards as she fought to defend herself
- Gun director
- Telegraph
- 20mm Oerlikon guns
- Compass & binacle
- Twin 40mm Bofors guns
- Depth charge racks at the stern
- Props
The visibility is usually pretty good but currents can be strong so you need to be aware of your bottom time and decompression obligation.
Dives
I got three dives on the wreck and could happily do another 3-5 and not be bored. My max depth on each dive was 200 fsw, 223 fsw, and 215 fsw and my runtimes were 3 hours, 2.2 hours, and 3 hours with bottom times around 35 minutes. We had some current but nothing I would consider crazy but you had to be aware of it, especially since most of the current was surface where the last couple of deco stops occur.
Some people have asked for more information on the dives so I’ve included profiles for all three dives below:
A 10 cent O-Ring Almost Ruining a Dive
I had one very interesting dive which was almost ruined by a most inconspicuous o-ring.
On the second dive, I was going to dive with Aron from Dirty Dozen and we were going to work on getting some stills and video footage of the wreck. We were the second group and got all our gear on the RIB and headed to the dive site after the first group. We had a decent amount of surface current and had, in fact, delayed the dive a bit until the current subsided to a dive-able level.
The RIB pulled up and tied into the other RIB and the downline. Aron splashed and went to the deco bar to wait for me to join him. I like to get all my bailout tanks on in the RIB especially when there is current. When I hit the water I heard a lot of bubbles so I worked to figure out where they were coming from. I isolated it to a small o-ring that had extruded from the 90 degree elbow on the deep bailout on a long hose around my neck.
At this point, I started to evaluate my options and none of them were good since it involved my deep bailout tank. If it was my Nitrox 50 tank, I would simply turn it off and feather it if I needed to use it. However, I want my deep bailout tank to always be on, pressurized and ready to breathe.
Since there were no good options to continue the dive and since I didn’t want to cancel, I gave the tank back to the RIB, indicated the problem, and held on to the RIB tied to the wreck while they took the faulty tank back to the live aboard. I hung on in current for a long time while another team came and dropped in on the wreck. Meanwhile, I could look down and see Aron waiting for me at 20 feet on the deco bar.
Apparently there were some other issues with my reg setup so it took some time to fix them and 25 minutes later they were back to me with my deep bailout tank ready to go. I put it on but we had drifted away from the wreck so I had to hold on as they motored the RIB back to the downline. I joined Aron 25 minutes after he had splashed. I caught my breath on the deco bar and then we headed down for a dive but cut it a bit short just given how many problems I had on the surface.
I don’t like to calculate how much each dive on a trip like this costs, but I’m pretty sure that simple 10 cent o-ring almost cost me a LOT of money in terms of a lost dive.
Photos
In spite of my o-ring difficulties, I got three great dives on the wreck and got some good pictures of the wreck. I’ve tried to figure out the best way to show where each of these photos was taken to give readers an overall perspective of where each part is. I’ve decided to go with the approach below.
I’m hoping this is a relatively comprehensive approach and will give future divers a good sense of what is where. I will attempt to go primarily from bow to stern. Below is Neil’s diagram and then I’ve also included the outboard profile with pictures at key points.
Below is the outboard profile with representative photos:
Bow Photos
The bow used to be a bit upright by about 15 degrees where it hit the reef but has since settled. There is a crease just forward of the #1 gun where she settled. You can see this in the picture on the lower right. The bow now has a list to the starboard.
Gun #1
The most forward of the four guns points straight ahead. It has a very cool coral formation at the top of the barrel.
Gun #2
The second gun which is right in front of where the bridge would be is pointing up and to the port side. She is at a high elevation and was probably firing on the attacking airplanes. The barrel on this gun has a long of sponge growth on it.
Bridge
The bridge was made from quarter inch plate and has corroded and collapsed. There is still a lot of equipment around the bridge area including the telegraph, helm etc.
Gun Director
One of the technology advances that helped us beat the Japanese in the Pacific was the use of radar. It was just starting to emerge during WW II and our systems were superior and allowed us to range in and hit targets more efficiently. This central director could determine target range, direction, speed and aim all the guns via remote control while taking into account the course and speed of the ship.
Forward Funnel
The forward funnel is collapsed and down in the sand along with a mast. The mast is where the downline is tied in to the wreck.
Torpedo Racks
They had five tubes in the torpedo table which is just aft of the downline. It is facing towards the bow as the torpedos were not being used on the day of the attack. The port side torpedo mistakenly fired due to the concussions of the bombs during the attack and it ran into the forward funnel. Torpedos are generally armed after a certain number of revolutions of the prop and it is not known how many revolutions that torpedo had so beware! The doors on both the port and starboard outside torpedo tubes are open. It makes for a very picturesque photo.
You can see the port side torpedo sticking out in front of the tube on the lower left photo.
Rear Funnel
The rear funnel is right behind the torpedo tubes and used to be standing straight up but now has collapsed towards the port side of the wreck.
Searchlight
Unfortunately, when the rear funnel collapsed over, the magnificent searchlight also toppled over.
Rear Deck House
Most of the rear deck house has collapsed. This is where the toilets were for the heads and showers for the crew were.
40mm Anti-Aircraft Bofors
The gun tubs have now collapsed so these are pointed downwards. These first set pictures are all from the starboard side gun. It is a bit hard to see both barrels but you can make out one under the other in the upper left photo. (Lower right photo By Michael Rivera – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80227841).
These pictures are from the port side gun and also show the 40mm ammo around that area. The ammo came in pack of four.
Gun #3
This gun points starboard and towards the sky. The casing around the gun mount iscorroded and falling away.
Gun #4
The sternmost gun is right behind gun #3 and is also pointing skyward and to the starboard. It is sometimes hard to figure out gun #3 and gun #4 in photos because they both have the rear part of the gun casing fallen off. In some photos, you can see both guns and based on the previous photos and direction (aft or forward) when taking the picture, you can tell the difference. Also, the back casing on gun #4 is flat down.
Depth Charge Racks
Behind the #4 gun is a large crease and it is badly broken down (lower left photo below). This is due to the impact as the ship settled by stern causing the stern to be badly bent upward. It used to be bent upwards of 60 degrees but according to Neil Yates has since settled back down around 2010 during the earthquake (?).
Props
The prop on the port side is an amazing site and well worth visiting.
Thanks To…
A big thanks to the crew of the Solomons Master for doing a great job safely getting divers on the Aaron Ward and for fixing my o-ring issue in a jiffy so I didn’t lose a dive!
Thanks to Neil Yates for his research, the amazing knowledge that he has of the Aaron Ward, and that he freely gives it away. He was instrumental in the creation of this post.
References
Neil Yates “Wrecks of Iron Bottom Sound” Word document
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