USS Atlanta steams at high speed circa November 1941. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
USS
ATLANTA
The GHOSTat 71 fathoms “It was a barroom brawl after someone had shot all the lights out” – survivor of the sinking of the USS Atlanta
W
hat’s left of her lies in the deep dark, tilted on her left side. And while any sunken ship is called a wreck, this one certainly is; blasted from stem to stern by shells, punctured and broken, she is an almost unrecognizable hulk of broken and twisted steel. This is the USS Atlanta, lying 426 feet below the surface of the water, not far from the island of Guadalcanal, which she – and the 157 men still aboard – gave their lives defending on November 12, 1942. Caught between friendly and enemy fire as she drifted helplessly into the melee of a horrific nighttime surface battle, she was so
KEN DENNEY West Georgia Living May/June 2017 23