A true story at the Pearl Harbour

The Uncle, of John Murphy,

Tom (Thomas Murphy) died a few years back.

He was Weapons Officer on the USS California.

They were hit by torpedoes.

He and his Sunday crew

shot up all the ammunition

they had on deck back at the Japanese.

The Ship Captain and The Executive Officer

Were ashore for their brunch.

Thomas Murphy had no keys to the armory.

He told all of the crew

to jump to the log bumper

and swim under the pier.

It happened so fast,

he said,

they had no plan B.

USS California sunk straight down to the bottom

of the pier berth.

It was raised with air filled balloons afterwards

and went on to fight again.

This was told to me by John Murphy @ConcordiaDiscors

Launched in 1919,

USS California (BB-44)

was a mighty vessel,

the flagship of the US Pacific fleet

– an honor she held for 20 years from 1921 until 1941.

The California was a Tennessee-class battleship,

and like her classmate—

which was also stationed at Pearl Harbor—

she was capable of 21 knots

and was armed with 12 14-inch guns.

The USS California

was younger than the Arizona (BB-39),

built in 1917,

but not the youngest battleship at Pearl Harbor,

which was the USS West Virginia (BB-48),

launched in 1921.

Along with these ships,

the California deployed to Hawaii

with the rest of the Pacific Fleet in 1940.