USS Utah, United States of America
| General Attributes |
DOI| 10.34946/D6002J | |
| Project Name | USS Utah |
| Country | United States of America |
| Status | Published |
| Citation |
| US National Park Service Submerged Resource Center 2026: USS Utah - Photogrammetry - Terrestrial, Data Derivatives - 3D photogrammetry. Distributed by Open Heritage 3D. https://doi.org/10.34946/D6002J |
| Download |
| Spatial Data | Download (Links to all available data types will be emailed) |
| Data Type |
Size |
Device Name |
Device Type |
| Photogrammetry - Terrestrial | 1168 GB | Nikon Z7 | NPS Sea Array - Mirrorless |
| Data Derivatives - 3D photogrammetry | 475 GB | Not available | Not available |
| Background |
| Site Description | The USS Utah (originally designated BB-31) was a Florida-class battleship commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 1911. By the 1930s she had been demilitarized under naval treaty limits and converted into a target and gunnery training ship, redesignated AG-16. Timber planking covered her decks to shield them from practice ordnance.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Utah was moored on the northwest side of Ford Island at Pearl Harbor, in a berth frequently used by aircraft carriers. Some historians suggest Japanese pilots mistook her for an active warship. Struck by at least two torpedoes early in the attack, she quickly took on water, rolled over, and capsized within minutes.
Fifty-eight of her crew were killed. Chief Watertender Peter Tomich stayed below to secure the boilers and help shipmates escape, sacrificing his own life; he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Unlike many other vessels at Pearl Harbor, Utah was never returned to service or fully salvaged. Her hull still lies partially submerged off Ford Island, where the USS Utah Memorial, dedicated in 1972, honors those lost aboard her. Often overshadowed by the nearby USS Arizona, she remains a quiet reminder of the attack's human cost. | |
| Project Description | A 3 day photogrammetry campaign undertaken by the U.S. National Park Service Submerged Resource Center (SRC). 26796 images, including underwater (capptured with Sea Array multicam system) and above water sections from a boat. The shallow water and poor visibility presented a challenging work environment, and resulted in suboptimal coverage. While the full hull is mapped, difficulties in creating consistent overlap resulted in the reconstruction of two separate pieces, which have been manually aligned.
Special thanks to CyArk and UC San Diego's CHEI group for assistance in aligning and processing this data. | |
| External Project Link | View exhibit |
| Collection Date | 2022-08-04 to 2022-08-13 |
| Publication Date | 2026-08-06 |
| License Type | CC BY |
| Model Information |
| Reuse Score | C - Non-Metric Model |
| Curator Notes | We are still trying to source an older multibeam scan to register and provide a metric foundation. For now, all scale is based on drawings by Jerry Livingston (embedded below). -Scott McAvoy OH3D
 |
| Entities |
| Contributors | US National Park Service Submerged Resource Center |
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