Spotted on the ‘Scope: Lucky Pennsy

Some 90 years ago, from a collection of 70 submarine periscope photographs shot around Pearl Harbor between August and November 1941 to test camera work via such devices, we find a great shot of the battlewagon USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) in refit in Drydock No. 1 at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. National Archives ID 363418563. HMS Record Entry ID 150441. Records of Naval Operating Forces/Photographs Taken by Submarine Periscopes 1941-1941. Note the 10-ton “Hammerhead” crane to the left, and the large “mattress” CXAM-1 radar antenna atop the foremast, which had only been installed in August 1941. Several Bagley-class destroyers are moored in the foreground, including USS Mugford (DD-389), which at the time was flagship of Destroyer Division Eight of Destroyer Squadron Four, and her sister Blue (DD-387). Both Pennsylvania and the two destroyers made it through the maelstrom of December 7th and went on to hard service. Blue was lost at Guadalcanal in 1942, while both Pennsy and Mugford…