Welcome everyone to the third and final part of this three-part blog post on the USS Nevada. Please read Part 1 and Part 2 before reading this post, now let’s get into the last part of the story.

After her decommissioning in August of 1946, USS Nevada stood as a relic of a bygone age of larger and larger battleships. The world had changed, and aircraft carriers had all but replaced the need for large lumbering guns at sea. Nevada had fought hard during her 32 years of service and had served her country honorably during both world wars. She had accomplished so many historic feats that a future as a museum ship would have been well deserved. However, Nevada would be called on one more time by her government after her decommissioning. Her mission: death by nuclear hellfire.

After the end of the second world war, the age of nuclear weapons was just beginning. This meant that the US needed to know just how much damage their new bombs could do. In this case, the thought was what happens to an armada when a nuke is dropped on it. Thus, Operation Crossroads was born in 1948 and Nevada was to be its target. The ship was painted bright orange to be a target for the B-29 bomber and was surrounded by other decommissioned navy vessels. Tanks and military vehicles were also lined on her decks and the test was ready with Nevada as the bomb’s target. She sat quiet and empty in the Bikini Atoll as the bomber approached, 32 years and a book’s worth of service and history, and now she was ready to go down in a blaze of glory… or at least that was the plan. The bomb was slightly off its mark and Nevada survived the blast. A minor hiccup but the military had another bomb ready for an underwater detonation that wouldn’t miss. She was ready for the end…except that the second bomb didn’t sink her either.

“What do we do now” the Navy must have thought. The ship was too radioactive to be salvaged or even towed back to Pearl Harbor so what could they do? Why target practice of course. Several navy ships aimed their guns at Nevada and began to open fire including the mighty USS Iowa and her nine 16-inch guns. Surely this would do the mighty ship in… except five days later she was still floating. Nevada seemed unwilling to die, her mighty fighting spirits seemingly flowing her to the end. Enough was enough however when on the fifth day of the bombardment on July 31, 1948, a torpedo bomber launched a torpedo into Nevada’s side finally doing in the mighty dreadnought. Her sinking was fully recorded by the military, and one cannot help but feel saddened to see this mighty ship whose historical significance cannot be underrated head to her watery grave. However, I believe we can all take solace in the fact that if she had to sink, at least she sank in perhaps the coolest way ever, I mean what other ship can say it survived two nukes.

Finally, USS Nevada’s wreck was rediscovered in April of 2020, 675 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor. Though she is almost unrecognizable after her violent end, she remains a testament to the strength of the dreadnought battleships of the early 20^th century and perhaps is the closest the US Navy has ever come to building an unsinkable ship.

Thanks for reading this three-part post! I hope you enjoyed and as always if you have any comments about this post or the last two posts feel free to leave them below. Finally, a big thanks to Dark Seas and National Geographic for the help and inspiration to create these posts. Have a great week everyone.