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Life Preserver from Wasp (CV-7)

Exhibits & Collections > History Up Close > Life Preserver from Wasp (CV-7)

“The aircraft carrier was transformed from a beautiful, vicious offensive war machine into a helpless mass of flame, smoke, explosions and agony,” reads a description of the torpedoing of the aircraft carrier Wasp (CV 7) by the Japanese submarine I-19 while operating in the South Pacific on 15 September 1942. Of the four torpedoes fired by the enemy, two struck home in the vicinity of the carrier’s fuel tanks and ordnance magazines, sending fiery blasts ripping through the forward part of the ship. The blasts damaged the ship's water mains, preventing firefighting measures, and she quickly began listing to starboard, the oil and gasoline on the water around her catching fire. An hour after the torpedoes hit, Captain Forrest P. Sherman, Wasp’s skipper and a future Chief of Naval Operations, gave the order to abandon ship. “It took no small amount of courage to make good the escape…Some chose to slide down the lines that had been secured… Others jumped as far as possible away from the ship, landing feet first, splashing a hole in the burning oil under which they could duck and swim to safety.”

Among those going over the side was a young Marine named Charles James Lutze, who was a member of the Marine Detachment in the carrier, serving as a pointer on one of her 5-inch guns and as orderly for Captain Sherman. Feeling lucky to be wearing the life preserver pictured here with an air valve that actually worked, Lutze grabbed one of the lines and slid down into the oily waters around the stricken ship, burning his hands on the rope like so many of his shipmates. He subsequently spent four hours in the water until finally being picked up by the destroyer O’Brien (DD 415), which later that evening transferred him the to the heavy cruiser Salt Lake City (CA 25).

After the crew had successfully abandoned ship, Wasp continued to burn, literally floating on a burning pool of gasoline and oil. Finally, the destroyer Lansdowne
(DD 486) drew the sad task of delivering the coup de grace to the ship, firing five torpedoes towards the burning hulk. Three hit home and Wasp stubbornly clung to life until finally slipping beneath the waves by the bow at 2100. 

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