The SteelNavy.Com Message Board: Re: Pearl Harbor attack casualty mystery!

I'm starting to think that it most likely drifted there by itself and could not drift any further because the dredge line block the path right at Tennessee's starboard beam.

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I would speculate that prevailing currents had something to do with it. It may have gotten the barge clear of Arizona faster to push it past rather than try, and possibly fail, to push it upstream while under attack. Or it may have broken free when Nevada made her run, drifted toward Arizona, and then needed to be quickly pushed clear.

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In all of the Pearl Harbor books, all of the log books, and all of the action reports that I have read, I have never seen mentioned the accounts of this particular casualty on that fateful day.
Sometime between the first wave and the second second wave of the attack, a covered ammunition barge was placed on USS Tennessee's starboard beam.
Which barge it was and how it got there remains a mystery! More importantly, WHY place an ammunition barge next to USS Tennessee during an attack? Seems too risky and careless to me.
We know for a fact that at the start of the attack, USS Tennessee did not have a barge on her starboard side. However, USS Nevada did.

I'm 99% sure that the barge on Nevada's starboard beam was YF-240.

However, Nevada's deck logs do not mention any barge there on Dec.7th. YF-240 and YF-261 did visit Nevada's starboard side on Dec.6th, but tugs took both of them away later on the 6th.

I suspect the details of which barge was there on December 7th in Nevada's logs was simply overlooked by the chaos of the attack.

I also suspect this is the same barge that made it's way to the Tennessee. The barge was probably moved from Nevada to Tennessee when Nevada started her sortie.
None of the yard tug accounts mention moving a barge to Tennessee.
Tennessee's deck logs do not mention this barge at all. The barge even remained with Tennessee until she finally was freed from her berth a few days later.
There is only one account of this barge being there that I can find so far. This is the account from USS Tennessee's war diary.

Here is a view of the barge on Tennessee's startbord beam on the morning of Dec.7th.
Clearly you can see that her roof has been blown out.

What caused this explosion to blow out the roof? And when exactly did it happen? Did a bomb cause this damage? Or did her stored ammunition explode due to the surrounding fires?

At some point, this barge was moved from Tennessee's starboard beam to her stern.
This view taken a couple of days later shows the barge at the stern and you can clearly see the roof damage on it.

Just imagine trying to move an ammunition barge to USS Tennessee, past USS Arizona which was a blazing inferno at that time. WHY DO THAT????