Trapped at Pearl Harbor

Escape from Battleship Oklahoma

Stephen Bower Young was a seaman first class assigned to gunnery duty in turret no. 4 on the Oklahoma when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Struck by torpedoes, the battleship started to sink, and Young and others became trapped when it overturned. Here, he recounts their terrifying experience with stunning clarity, recalling their frantic search for an escape route and horror at finding the exits blocked. He describes the water's inexorable rise, inch by awful inch; the sickening taste of fuel oil; the foul smell of the air; the nervous wisecracks echoing through the cold darkness; and finally the silence, as the possibility of rescue becomes ever more remote. Undeniably one of the most spellbinding events to unfold during the air raid, this true-life story of Young's escape rivals that of any fiction thriller.