Project Objective 3
Interior Data Collection Using the VideoRay ROV
November 15-18, 2004

 

NPS Archeologist Matt Russell tends the VideoRay ROV as it enters a hatch on Arizona. In the foreground is a diver's slate with a deck plan of the ship. This is used for recording notes and measurements made during the dive. Photo by Brett Seymour, NPS.

 

A VideoRay ROV will carry instruments to measure pH, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, oxygen reduction potential and conductivity. These are the same parameters being measured outside the hull of the ship. The ROV will also carry a GMC Staperm silver-silver chloride reference electrode to measure interior corrosion potential.  These instruments were used extensively in November 2003 to collect data in second deck cabins, and in November 2004 researchers will focus on the less-easily accessible third deck spaces.  NPS researchers are monitoring the environment within Arizona’s interior cabins to determine internal environmental conditions.  Internal conditions can be compared to external conditions in an attempt to infer interior corrosion nature and rate.  These data are critical to developing a viable Finite Element Model that takes into account both interior and exterior hull corrosion.  A VideoRay ROV is equipped with a YSI 600XLM Multiparameter Sonde to measure pH, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, oxygen reduction potential and conductivity.  Data from both external and internal environmental monitoring will be assessed and the results will be factored in developing the Arizona FEM.

Photo by Brett Seymour, NPS.

The VideoRay ROV fitted with a YSI multiparameter probe. Photo by Brett Seymour, NPS.

Initial investigations are focused on second deck cabins accessible via open portholes and inside Barbette No. 3.  Subsequent investigations will record environmental parameters in Third Deck spaces -- although very few of these areas are currently accessible to the ROV, one of the goals of the interior investigation is to locate access to Arizona’s lower decks.