The Wreck of USS Ward - From Pearl Harbor to Kamikazes 

This is a fascinating story of coincidence! The dates, the commanding officer, everything. On top of that, she fired the first shot of our Pacific War and sank the first ship at Pearl Harbor. Great video!

The movie "Tora, Tora, Tora!" Depicted the Ward engaging the midget submarine according to the Ward's account. It turned out to be entirely accurate.

Great History! My Dad's ship portrayed the USS Ward in the movie "Tora Tora Tora" the USS Finch DE 328

Another really interesting tidbit involving the USS Ward, is that when she sunk the Japanese sub at Pearl Harbor one of her gunnery officers was a young ensign named Adrian Marks from Frankfort, Indiana. Later Adrian Marks was accepted into flight training and was assigned to pilot a PBY seaplane. When the USS Indianapolis was sunk in the Pacific, it was Lt. Adrian Marks who landed his PBY in the water enabling his flight crew to start pulling sailors out of the water to safety from the encircling sharks. They pulled so many sailors onto the floating PBY that the added weight eventually broke the plane's air-frame and it subsequently had to be sunk by gunfire from USN destroyers.

As it happens, USS Ward was named in honor of Commander James Harmon Ward, USN, (1806-1861), the first U.S. Navy officer to be killed in action during the American Civil War.

Fascinating, even in her decrepit condition. Ward was a subject of a drawing I did for a patron many years ago whereupon I learned of her historic first shot on that Day of Infamy. Thanks for showing this.

Fantastic video honoring and showing the wreck of a proud fighting ship!

Thank you for this video! I recently discovered this channel and it is refreshing to see someone that doesn't embellish things for views like Mark Felton does, and you dont have clickbaity titles or titlecards (thumbnails). Very well done!

Before the sub was found I watched a show on TV with a modern destroyer showing how difficult it would have been for Ward to do this, showing todays Laser computer sighting... At the end of the show you were convinced Ward did not do this..... I guess the old guys ruled that day on Ward...... The greatest Generation....

The torn and rusted metal gives precedence to the term "Tin Can Sailors" as to how thin the metal was that these ships were made of. I've been on a few of these destroyers (museum pieces) and many places you step on the outer decking it will flex. You can see and hear how thin the hull is as you make your way about. Then if you go onto a large, thicker hulled ship, you can hear the density and notice a more solid platform as you move about. This is why I have the utmost respect for the sailors who manned these greyhounds of the seas.

*It's only right for the USS Wards former Captain William Outerbridge to put her down.* Three years to the day is the amazing part of this story. I'd argue that Ward is one of the most historic war ships. She was the First to strike back for America.

I recognize the USS Ward name from Pearl Harbor! Thanks for the history!

Thank you for sharing this outstanding video.

Have visited the 4”/50 mount (that was located on the DD-139/USS Ward's midships deckhouse, starboard side) numerous times and it always both moves and amazes me to think a crew of Minnesota USNR sailors were able to track, aim and hit anything with it. I don’t know why, but I always believed the story of the crew attacking/sinking the sub with depth charges and 4” gunfire, even before the evidence was found on the ocean bottom. Historically, having subs be part of the attack on the naval base just made sense.

The gun that fired the first US shot of WWII is on display at the Capital of Minnesota in St Paul. One of my employees father was one of the Navel Reserve members manning the gun, his name is on the plaque on the gun.

hope that the great Paul Allen's estate would continue this fascinating exploration..the videos and image bring to light the horrors of war and the sad end to resources..

As usual, a splendid history of a noteworthy warship. Those old flushdeckers truly were special! Incidentally, it's very likely you are right about that being an anchor in the picture of the wreck's forward bows and stem. I didn't notice until you said it might be the anchor, but then it immediately became apparent that one of the cables was attached to it, and if you follow the chain to the right, towards the stem, you can easily spot it coming out of the WARD's starboard hawse pipe. By the way, not necessarily important, but while it was a bit amusing to hear "O'Brien" pronounced like an Irish brand of the French cheese, it's actually pronounced the same way as "O'Brian." Much in the same way that "McLeod" is pronounced "MacCloud" or "MacKay" is pronounced "MacKie." Keep up the good work. There's too much rubbish on RU-vid - you're one of the reliable ones.

Thanks, Skynea. Take care.

The Canon that sunk the sub has been sitting on the south lawn of the Minnesota state capital. The plak was updated after the sub was found.

There is no like button showing on this for me, so, thumbs-up!

I bet it was heartbreaking for the captain to have to scuttle his former ship.

If you are ever running short on warship wrecks to cover, there are a whole host of sunk IJN Auxiliary wrecks in Truck that have a lot of well documented footage and drawings to go over. Some with very impressive torpedo damage too.

thank you for this video on the USS Ward. Where is the Ward's forward 4 inch gun on display?

6:40 it is the anchor you can see the chain if you look to the right .

The china may have become visible as the galley in the 4 stackers was in the midships deck house (just aft of the bridge structure on the maindeck about where the forward 2 stacks had been area before their removal) so not much structural collapse there would have exposed its interior contents.

@Skynea: The Ward was scuttled by a destroyer with a common Irish name-O’Brien-pronounced “oh-BRY-enn”-or as if spelled O’Brian, the common man’s name-NOT like the French cheese (oh-BREE-enn). Trust me. I was married to an O’Brien for years. If you can change the audio, you really should.

I'm more curious about the large crater you showed in the scan.

A friend of mine in boot camp (RTCSD) told me that his grandfather was a Ltjg was OOD on the Ward when they spotted the sub. His grandfather lived in sight of RTC, my friend could point out his house on Point Loma. His grandfather attended our graduation, he was a retired Rear Admiral....

So there's a huge crater right next to the wreck and it wasn't explored??

I'm wondering how they identified this wreck, considering the condition of it ?

I can't believe that Ward's account of its encounter with the Japanese midget submarine was doubted by so many people for so long. I was not aware that the U.S. Navy converted some of its destroyers to fast transports. Interestingly enough, the Japanese resorted to using regular, i.e. unconverted, destroyers as transports during the Guadalcanal campaign, a supply run that became known as the "Tokyo Express". Although their carrying capacity was limited they were fast and nimble in the difficult waters of the Solomons "Slot" and could conduct their operations during the night when the aircraft based at Henderson Field could not attack them.

How about a video of the USS Sims which was sunk during the Battle of Carol Sea

Knew of the role at Pearl harbor not her ending though. Thanks, I'll remember. ✌️🇺🇲. Go Navy 👍

Outeabridge the captain of the Ward was my uncle.

There are no coincidences.

Ward would be considered a war grave I would assume and salvagi g the dishes would be looked down on, if not outright illigal, without permission from the US navy

how was this determined to be the Ward????

I thought that Fast Transports kept their front 4" gun.

Wasn't it somewhat uncommon for kamikaze to attack destroyers?