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How One Sailor's 'Stupid' Bucket Idea Saved Aircraft Carrier From Sinking After Kamikaze Hit

Why a U.S. Navy sailor used salvaged buckets for emergency damage control during World War II — and saved an aircraft carrier from sinking. This story reveals how a simple bucket-based pressure baffle system transformed naval damage control and saved 2,800 lives.

On March 19, 1945, the aircraft carrier USS Franklin was hit by a devastating kamikaze strike off the coast of Japan, creating an eighteen-foot gash in her hull that unleashed uncontrollable flooding. The stakes were unprecedented—standard damage control procedures using collision mats and shoring were designed for slow leaks, not the massive breaches caused by kamikazes. Conventional wisdom dictated sealing and pumping, but it couldn’t keep pace with the water rushing in. They were all wrong.

Seaman Gerald Mitchell’s unconventional solution was a pressure baffle system made from everyday materials: rubber gaskets cut from jeep tires, cable wire, and steel buckets. What Mitchell discovered wasn’t about following regulations. It was about using the ship’s own forward momentum to counteract flooding pressure by redirecting water flow in a way that contradicted every Navy manual. His "stupid bucket" idea quickly reduced flooding by 70 percent, buying critical time to save the ship.

The immediate success of Mitchell’s bucket arrays turned the tide aboard the burning USS Franklin. Despite initial ridicule, his system was rapidly taught to damage control teams across the ship and unofficially spread to other breaches, keeping the carrier afloat through seven hours of relentless fires and explosions. His invention revolutionized naval damage control, becoming standardized fleet-wide and credited with saving countless lives in later conflicts.

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