The Ship Model Forum

Yes - exactly.

Those are excellent photos. I haven't seen them before - perfect.

Cheers,

Chris

Ah! You are referring to the aviation fuel line!
[url=https://postimg.cc/NKrrqgnW][img]https://i.postimg.cc/zGxwhvFX/Screen-Shot-2021-07-16-at-7-42-21-PM.png[/img][/url]

[url=https://postimg.cc/xkDN9wDq][img]https://i.postimg.cc/vmDrty07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-16-at-7-44-47-PM.png[/img][/url]

My build is 1/96th scale, using a fibre-glass hull from the Scale Shipyard.

Cheers,

Chris

Chris, what scale is the model?

'Afternoon All,

Many Thanks to everyone who replied. Part of my confusion is the Chesley plan, which shows the "cable" on the side of the hull, just above the top of the Torpedo Bulge - it's incorrectly labelled the Degaussing Cable. The external aviation fuel line makes much more sense, but I'm still wondering about the cross-section of it (and what to use to replicate it).

Cheers,

Chris

Hello,
The degaussing cables were indeed a bundle of 3 cables at the forward and aft sections of the ship. The mid section was just one cable. In the lower right of this photo, you can see that two of the degaussing cables separate from the bundle and entered the deck just aft of #2 barbette. The third degaussing line continues aft, enters the deck at the break in the deck and re-emerges on the main deck. It picks up two more cables just forward of #3 barbette, then continues aft as a bundle again.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://i.postimg.cc/zD639BZC/IMG-3049.jpg[/img][/url]

[quote=ModelMonkey post_id=1107152 time=1782681741 user_id=16490][i]Arizona[/i]'s the aviation fuel (avgas) used for its scout floatplanes was stored in heavily protected tanks located on the lowest decks near the forward magazines and armor protection. The avgas tanks were securely placed below the main decks where the heavily armored structures were designed to protect the powder magazines from the highly flammable gasoline.[/quote]

Slight correction - both Arizona and Pennsylvania' armored box stopped at frame 20 and the avgas was outside of the box. It was, however, under the waterline and the hope / plan was that any rupture of this tank would be mixed and diluted with seawater. Not armored, but danger somewhat mitigated.

The explosion that killed Arizona built up an enormous amount of pressure within the armored box before bursting out the sides. The forward armored bulkhead contained the explosion, but the bow was nearly broken free of the hull by the force. This is why the very bow of the ship is still visible today close to the surface of the water whereas the rest of the deck aft of the forward armored bulkhead has collapsed into the shell (what's left of it).

Hi Chris,

The cable you are seeing in the January, 1941 photo is not a degaussing cable. It is the aircraft fuel line, fitted only to the port side.

Arizona's degaussing cables were fitted to the deck, just inboard of the waterway, port and starboard.


[attachment=4]BB-39 Arizona 1941_04 Screen-Shot-2020-03-13-at-2-11-48-PM note.jpg[/attachment]


It's difficult to tell exactly how many cables there are from this photo but it looks to my eye to be three round cables. They are arranged two cables on bottom with a third cable on top the two, in the form of a pyramid. I may be wrong.

Three cables is consistent with the number of degaussing cables of other large US Navy warships of similar tonnage. Here's the three-cable layout of USS [i]Yorktown[/i] CV-5:


[attachment=3]CV-5 Yorktown 1942_05 80g 13065 crop.jpg[/attachment]


Jeff Sharp did some really good research on the cables and found that they transitioned from the upper deck forward and midships down to the quarter deck (main deck) in an unusual way. Here's how Jeff modeled the transition and their terminus at the end of the quarterdeck (Jeff's photos).


[attachment=2]1-200 BB-39 by Jeff Sharp.200.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=1]1-200 BB-39 by Jeff Sharp.199.jpg[/attachment]

Jeff will be able to provide you with more information.

[i]Arizona[/i]'s the aviation fuel (avgas) used for its scout floatplanes was stored in heavily protected tanks located on the lowest decks near the forward magazines and armor protection. The avgas tanks were securely placed below the main decks where the heavily armored structures were designed to protect the powder magazines from the highly flammable gasoline. The ship's avgas storage compartment held roughly 3,500 gallons. For deployment, the aviation fuel was pumped up to the quarterdeck through a pipe mounted to the exterior of the ship on the port side.


[attachment=0]32093-008-001-0205 crop.jpg[/attachment]

Everything I've seen would indicate round. I don't have any really clear close-up photos of the waterways they were laid in. I saw a diagram at NARA San Bruno over a decade ago of the initial implementation put in place on cruisers of the time and those were round cables. Lexington and Yorktown class aircraft carriers had round cables. I would expect that Jeff Sharp should have something photo wise that will clear it up though :)

Not sure about a bundle of cables. The plans don't show much detail on them and the only available photo I have seems to show the degaussing cable as one "strand", or covered.

Cheers,

Chris

would they not be bundled with 3 or 4 round cables?

'Afternoon All,

Would anyone know the cross-section of the external degaussing cables fitted to the hull of the USS ARIZONA? Were they semi/half circular in cross-section, or square/rectangular in cross-section?

Cheers,

Chris Preston

It would have been a mixture of some sort. Somewhat complicating this is that there were multiple colors of Linoleum used by the Navy. I've been trying to get to an area of records at NARA that discuss decking - but no guarantees that it will actually have anything external, or other than wood or deck paint. As it is just going through camouflage and paint has been extremely slow. I was at NARA last week and made it through one (large) folder of camouflage documentation. It was my first time seeing some other researchers and authors for a while (since before the pandemic in one case) and I will admit to losing about four hours in just talking even if you take lunch out of the equation.

So, hopefully this fall?

For those that are new to this question of appearance - we know the US Navy used linoleum pre-war, and there is even a photo of what we strongly suspect is linoleum on BB Idaho in 1941 [URL=https://images.google.com/hosted/life/a0df3993f76c1b29.html]posted by Google and Life Magazine[/URL]. Check out the platform with the flag bags the sailors are standing on.

[attachment=0]BB-42 in 1941.jpg[/attachment]

[quote="Jeff Sharp" post_id=1099873 time=1775496980 user_id=2614]
Unfortunately, there has been no proof presented either way at this point. However you decide to paint her decks, nobody can prove you right or wrong yet. All I've seen at this point is brown decks on California and Idaho, gray decks on Colorado.
[/quote]

Do you recall whether [i]all[/i] of [i]California[/i]'s unplanked decks had linoleum, or whether it was a mix of linoleum and painted steel?

Unfortunately, there has been no proof presented either way at this point. However you decide to paint her decks, nobody can prove you right or wrong yet. All I've seen at this point is brown decks on California and Idaho, gray decks on Colorado.

My apologies if this has been addressed somewhere in the preceding 130 pages, but does anyone know the current thinking on which of [i]Arizona[/i]'s superstructure decks had linoleum cladding, and which were just painted steel? I'm focusing on the summer of 1941, so that I can sidestep the vexed question of whether or when she ever had her Dark Gray 5D painted over with Sea Blue 5S, and so that I can use the short-lived Non-Specular Light Gray color scheme on the spotting planes.

Here is a look at the Executive Officer's Office. As new crew members boarded the ship from one of the gangways on the Main Deck, their first order of business was to report to the Executive Officer's Office for further assignments. This is the location that the very first bomb to strike Arizona hit. It was dropped by the center plane in the V formation. It traveled through this office, went two more decks down into the meat locker and failed to detonate.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://i.postimg.cc/rsbNjVyF/Screen-Shot-2026-03-24-at-8-37-21-PM.png[/img][/url]

In this photo you can see a Marine standing guard next to the opened door. Behind him is a crew member looking through file cabinets which were lined up on that interior bulkhead. Not sure what the crew member that has his back to us is doing.

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://i.postimg.cc/MZhB9rbX/Screen-Shot-2026-03-23-at-10-12-46-PM.png[/img][/url]

Here's another look at CREW A-704. This shot is at Frame 70, right at the funnel uptake. In this shot, the crew is gathered around a radio, which is up against the 5" Anti-Aircraft ammunition hoist for guns 1-3. Also visible is the heater blower and the starboard forward mast leg.

[url=https://postimg.cc/cvb3XYjs][img]https://i.postimg.cc/fbwvWff0/Screen-Shot-2026-03-21-at-12-00-06-PM.png[/img][/url]

[url=https://postimg.cc/dhr7mX8z][img]https://i.postimg.cc/2SX4mN38/Screen-Shot-2026-03-21-at-3-55-05-PM.png[/img][/url]

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://i.postimg.cc/J7BY2K6W/Screen-Shot-2026-03-21-at-11-55-09-AM.png[/img][/url]

The bomb went through this compartment on the starboard side.
Some other details worth noting, Barbette #1 is lined with laundry sacks and Barbette #2 is lined with storage lockers. At the base of Barbette #1 you can see a fire port.

This view shows "FR 41" on the upper I-beam.

[url=https://postimg.cc/hXqxmdyr][img]https://i.postimg.cc/3xkZPj2P/Screen-Shot-2026-03-20-at-11-16-24-AM.png[/img][/url]

This next view shows the exact area the bomb went through this compartment. Here we see the starboard ladder and the opening into the other section of A-704.

[url=https://postimg.cc/2q2DpyHz][img]https://i.postimg.cc/rmLFrtxt/Screen-Shot-2026-03-20-at-1-38-49-PM.png[/img][/url]

[url=https://postimg.cc/py7PX9Pd][img]https://i.postimg.cc/HsWnz5Kb/Screen-Shot-2026-03-20-at-1-41-47-PM.png[/img][/url]

Worth noting that we are looking athwartship from port to starboard and at the far end is one of the portholes in the plated-over removed 5"/51 casemate guns. Jeff stated this was a somber one - for those who haven't paid close attention to the wreck, this area was literally right above the large explosion that doomed Arizona. The blast was contained in large part by the added structure of the blisters below, but blew out the sides of the ship in this area and lifted the overhead (Forecastle deck above) up momentarily before it all collapsed back down into the void left and more or less came to rest on the tops of the torpedo blisters and the support of the barbettes.