Thoughts for the day -- Pearl Harbor

deepdraft1
Fri, 08 Dec 2006 12:06:50 +0000

Casual records, deck log and official testimonies indicate the USS Arizona had berthed at Pearl Harbor December 6th for minor repairs. She was refueled at that time.

Normal fuel capacity for ARIZONA was 4630 tons (approximately 29,800 Bbls.) Assuming that they bunkered to around 96~98% of capacity would mean there was around 4400 tons of fuel aboard at the time of the attack. Additionally the ship carried 75 tons of diesel oil (for boats), 11-3/4 tons of aviation fuel and 5,000 gallons of lube oil.

The lighter distillates are probably long gone by now. Hard to say about the lubes…

Given the threat of a possible war with Japan, my guess is the ship was pretty well “topped up”.