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USS Macaw
Midway Atoll

Also at Midway are the remains of the Chanticleer class U.S. Navy submarine rescue vessel USS Macaw ASR-11. The Macaw was a 250-foot salvage and rescue ship and featured heavy lifting and deep-sea diving capabilities, including the McCann Rescue Chamber. She initially went aground in foul weather during the attempted rescue of the submarine Flier near Midway’s main channel. Other assets were soon mobilized from Pearl Harbor, and the submarine was freed from the reef…but the Macaw remained hard aground and threatening to block the channel, then a critical passageway for the sub refit base at Midway.

During the salvage operations of the salvage ship, a powerful storm swept in and, in the late hours of February 13th, 1944, the Macaw began to list and slide backwards into deeper water. The salvage crew on board abandoned ship. Most were rescued the next day, clinging to buoys and reef rock, but five, including the Macaw’s commanding officer, were never recovered.

Salvage divers from the USS Shackle spent hundreds of man-hours setting demolition charges and cutting away Macaw’s superstructure, in order to clear the channel. Her hull and twisted superstructure debris were surveyed by NOAA archaeologists during the 2003 field season. The Macaw remains property of the U.S. Government and lies within protected waters at Midway Atoll, under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Bow of USS Macaw (Watt 2002)

Diver near midship (Van Tilburg 2003)