Wednesday, November 10, 2004 Dave Conlin studied anthropology and archeology as an undergraduate at Reed College in Portland Oregon and continued his graduate studies in archeology at Oxford University in England and at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.  He was the field director for the recovery of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley in 2000, the Ellis Island Ferry in 2002 and the Lake Mead B-29 in 2002 and 2003.

Bunker C and the Amazing Machine

Today we returned to the site where we've observed the largest amount of oil leaking during past projects. We've said that Arizona is leaking about a quart and a half of Bunker C fuel oil every day but we want to ascertain if the rate of oil release is increasing, decreasing or staying the same. We set the oil collection tent up yesterday afternoon and left it overnight and this morning we returned to find that very little oil had been collected because the collection jar was mostly full of gas. Matt had noticed the other day that this location was producing many gas bubbles. The question now is just what kind of gas are we looking at? Is it a metabolic byproduct of the marine microorganisms that are adding to the corrosive effects of the seawater? Is it the result of decay of the oil trapped deep in the ship, or is it possibly that the wreck has reached a point where one of the sealed compartments in the ship is giving way? Some of the answers to this question may be found by examining the gas we collected, other answers, and doubtless more questions may be provided by culturing and characterizing the microorganisms that live in the sediments over the wreck, in the water and even in the oil that we have been collecting these past several days.

Matt Russell and Dave Conlin examine a sample jar of Arizona's oil. Photo by Brett Seymour, NPS.

As part of the team collected samples, Brett Seymour, Dave Conlin and Art Ireland continued working on the AMAZING MACHINE which, starting today, has mounts for two 1200 watt HMI underwater lights.  "We need something that can overpower the sun so that we can keep our exposure the same and eliminate shadows at the edges of each image," said Brett, hefting a light so big that looked like it could have been mounted in a gun emplacement at Hickam Filed on December 7, 1941. "Hell, why settle for one, we should definitely have two." With the help of Art we now have a new improved AMAZING MACHINE that has enough candlepower to blow out anything, even the sunshine of Hawaii. Controlling our exposure and eliminating shadows at the edges of the individual images will give us a much better finished product. Thanks are definitely in order to Pete Romano and the folks at Hydroflex who have been so supportive to the project.

Brett Seymour and Art Ireland prep an underwater HMI light  to create the photographic mosaic of Arizona.
Photo by Dave Conlin, NPS.

While working at the Arizona Memorial will never be just a job, sometimes it is easy to focus on the science, on the diving or on what needs to get done next and forget, just for a moment, the gravity and solemnity that a gravesite for 1,177 sailor and Marines creates. Today as one of the Navy boats was casting off from the memorial a visitor came up to one of our team and asked if he could get on to the boat that was leaving. It wasn't his boat, in fact he had just arrived, but he told us that the memorial was too emotional a place and he needed to leave. The boat had already left the dock so he had to stay, but it was touching to see how deeply the sacrifices made on Arizona were able to resonate through more than six decades and evoke such emotion from a man who, in all likelihood, was in Hawaii to sit on the beach and swim in the ocean. A thought for all of us as Veteran's Day comes this year.