The Wreck of the USS Helena

Helena in the South Pacific sometime in 1943. This photo has been altered to remove the RADAR antennas from the gun directors and masts. 

On March 23rd, 2018, the Paul Allen sponsored ship RV Petrel located the wreck of the USS Helena, CL-50. The discovery was announced on April 11th with a post on Facebook.
Helena was the second of the St. Louis class, a modification of the preceding Brooklyn class. Armed with fifteen 6''/47 caliber guns, and eight 5''/38 caliber guns in four turrets, they were improvements over the Brooklyn class in machinery layout and armament.

This shows the profile of the St. Louis class, taken from a 1944 ONI identification guide.

The first images were from a short video of the hull number and one of the starboard screws. The wreck is 860 meters down, located in New Georgia Sound.

This is the stern of Helena, starboard side. The hull number can be seen, as can the tub for a 20mm Oerlikon Anti-Aircraft gun. A clearer photo from paulallen.com can be seen below. 

This shows the gun, with a drum still loaded. Of note is the bent gun shield, and what looks like fluting on the barrel. The large opening on the right side is the ship's hanger for its complement of floatplanes. Helena had four aircraft and two catapults, which can be seen in the photo of Helena's sister ship St. Louis below.

The crane can also be seen off in the back, and what are probably the protective covers for vents. 

A large crab on the stern section, near the hull number and Oerlikon cannon.  

These are the two stern turrets for the 6'' guns, still aimed out to port. Helena is shallower than the Juneau or the Lexington, so there is more marine life on the wreck, some of which have better photos below. 

The aft gun director has been covered in marine life. 

This is one of Helena's starboard screws, mostly buried in the sand. The St. Louis class had four screws like this one, as can be seen in the below photo of Helena under construction in 1938. From the photo this appears to be the outboard screw. 

This is apparently the mast, probably the lattice styled mast that was between the funnels. This might be on the forward section of the hull, but the description on the website isn't clear enough to say. 

These are Benthic Swimming Cucumbers by a part of the Helena. They are probably Pink Swimming Sea Cucumbers, an unusual species about which little is really known. 

This is one of Helena's 5''/38 gun turrets, with the access hatch still open. The photo below shows the open hatch, and how much marine life has attached itself to the wreck. 

Helena had four of these turrets, two on each side of the ship. Unfortunately, the site where these photos were found didn't provide any more detail. It is interesting to see how high the guns are elevated, which is surprising for a surface engagement like Helena was sunk in. Though there were many types of shells that 5'' guns could use, including Star Shells.  

Star Shells are fired from a gun, such as the 5''/38.  After a set flight time, a flare and parachute are ejected from the rear of the shell. The flare lights up the surrounding area, and the flame resistant parachute slows it's decent to allow around a minute of illumination. 

Something else interesting about this turret is that the shape of the turret roof means that this is might not actually a Mark 29 turret as has been generally reported. 

Instead, this is much closer to a Mark 22 in shape, but the guns are elevated much higher than the Mark 22's + 35 degrees. As such, a definitive answer to what Mark and Mod of mount this is will have to wait for more research. 

It looks like it could be a transitional design or a prototype of the Mark 29 mounting which was later modified after Helena was lost. 

This is where the stern ends, the tripod legs of the aft mast are visible, along with open hatches and the twisted metal from where the ship was wrenched apart. 

What must be the Number Three turret based on the description, located on the forward section of the wreck. This is the rear angle, with several Glass Sponges growing on it. 

The photo below is of the USS Oklahoma City, but the turret and the 6''/47 caliber Mark 16 guns are essentially the same as the ones aboard Helena, though Oklahoma City's turret is lacking the rangefinders on the sides. Each turret had a crew of three officers and fifty-two enlisted men. The openings in the back of the turret are where spent powder cases were ejected from. 

Each gun could fire between eight to ten rounds every minute, though depending on the engagement the actual rate of fire was dependant on fire control and target identification. 

A closer look at some Glass Sponges. More of these can be seen in the photo of the two rear turrets as well. 

A map of the New Georgia Islands, north west of Guadalcanal. 

On July 6th, 1943, a force of American ships was sent into the Slot. This was the area of ocean between the Soloman islands and was the main route that the Japanese took to reinforce and resupply their garrisons in the Solomons. A detachment of ten Japanese destroyers (Covering force: Niizuki, Suzukaze, Tanikaze. Transport groups: Mochizuki, Mikazuki, Hamakaze, Nagatsuki, Satsuki, Amigiri, and Hatsuyuki), loaded with 2,500 soldiers, were headed towards their airbase on the island of Kolombangara, recently attacked by the United States, and at risk of invasion. 

The American force consisted of the light cruisers Honolulu, St. Louis, and Helena. Four destroyers were also attached to the force, Nicholas, O'Bannon, Jenkins, and Radford. 

Surprisingly, it was the Japanese who made contact first with the radar set aboard the Niizuki at 0106. But the advantage in guns was with the Americans, who opened fire at 0157, kicking off the Battle of Kula Gulf. Helena had used her entire supply of flashless powder in bombarding targets on New Georgia, giving the impressive display in the photo above, taken from the USS Honolulu and showing both Helena in the center, and St. Louis in the background. The large flash of her guns gave the Japanese a clear target to launch their torpedoes at. 

Niizuki was quickly overwhelmed and sunk by American gunfire, but Suzukaze and Tanikaze had already launched their deadly Type 93 torpedoes at the American force. 

At 0203, Helena was hit by a torpedo. 

The first Type 93 torpedo hit the bow on the port side, slightly aft of the Number One turret. Helena's forward motion twisted the bow around and quickly sheared it off of the ship forward of the Number Two turret. Then, two more torpedos hit amidships, fatally wounding the ship.

From Helena's commander: Captain, later Rear Admiral, Charles Cecil.

HELENA opened fire to port at 0157 Love, range 7050 yards. The first and second targets taken under fire had been sunk and HELENA had shifted to the third target when, at 0203 plus, she was struck by a torpedo near frame 32 port side. … the bow of the ship forward of number two turret was sheared off by this hit.” 

But the next two hits were the fatal ones,

“The cumulative effect of the second and third hits was the breaking of the ship in the middle. The forward and after parts (less the bow) slowly jack-knifed at about frame 82, and the whole ship commenced slowly to sink, mid-part first. The ship was abandoned. Gradually the after part of the hulk assumed a vertical position and the forward part a forty-five-degree angle to it. About 0225, the sinking was accelerated, and the hulk, still in the same attitude, disappeared beneath the surface. The bow was still floating late the next afternoon"

Both sides began to retire, leaving destroyers behind to rescue survivors from the lost ships. The USS Radford and the USS Nicholas stayed behind to rescue Helena's crew. They gathered all but 275 men, who were reinforced by volunteers from the two destroyers. Lead by Cecil, they made their way to a small island nearby and were rescued the next night by other destroyers.
But, there were still as many as 200 men around the bow section, floating, but slowly sinking. They were supplied with life jackets and four rafts by a Navy B-24 and set out towards nearby Kolombangara. But the tides and currents were against them, pushing them away from the island, away from search aircraft, and closer to the Japanese strongholds on the northern end of the island chain. Many of the wounded perished during the 6th, as Kolombangara faded into the distance. On the morning of the 7th, the island of Vella Lavella came into view. The 165 survivors made landfall, and assisted by coastwatchers and natives, evaded the Japanese.
They were recovered on the night of July 16th by another force of destroyers, once again including the Nicholas and Radford.
All told, only 168 out of Helena's crew of around 888 perished in the sinking or the days after.
The Japanese only managed to land around 800 of their embarked troops and lost two destroyers in the process. Niizuki was sunk quickly, killing the Japanese commander, Rear Admiral Teruo Akiyama, in the process. Nagatsuki was damaged in the battle, ran aground, and was abandoned once the sun rose. The ship was then bombed by American aircraft, while only three of the other Japanese destroyers escaped damage.   

USS Radford with 468 survivors from Helena, sailing into Tulagi Harbor on July 6th. Radford would remain in service through the early Vietnam War, before being scrapped in 1970. 

Nagatsuki, after being bombed by American aircraft. Eight men were killed, and thirteen were wounded during the battle and subsequent evacuation.  

Sources:
http://combinedfleet.com/battles/Solomon_Islands_Campaign#Kula_Gulf
http://usnhistory.navylive.dodlive.mil/2018/04/06/uss-helena-cl-50-ready-willing-and-valiant/
https://www.paulallen.com/uss-helena/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enypniastes
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/paul-allens-hunt-historic-wwii-shipwrecks-scores-another-find-uss-helena/
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_6-47_mk16.php
http://www.navweaps.com/index_oob/OOB_WWII_Pacific/OOB_WWII_Kula-Gulf.php

A first-hand account of the sinking, and survival on the island of Vella Lavella  http://www.usshelena.org/cellozzi.html