I've finished the book. What is really surprising is the fact that when the original survey of the damage was completed, only one ship, the USS Oklahoma, was deemed to be a total loss. According to the survey (conducted right after the attack) everything else could be salvaged and refloated. In the last chapter the powers that be (mostly BuShips) determined the Arizona and the Utah were not worth the cost and were to be left as war grave sites.
The Oklahoma had not only been sunk, but had rolled 162 degrees to starboard. The salvage team believes she was hit with at least five torpedoes and maybe as many as seven. There was evidence that she was hit with torpedoes after she had started to roll, because there was torpedo damage above the armor belt !
After Oklahoma was righted and re-floated a board was convened (on 7 July 1944) to determine if she should be repaired or scrapped. The board determined she was not worth the cost. In September of 1944 she was decommissioned and stricken from the Navy register. She was towed to the repair basin, stripped of her guns and superstructure and moored in West Loch for the remainder of the war. She was sold for scrap, but the damage she suffered on 7 December weakened her greatly. She sank under tow to San Francisco on 17 May 1947, about 500 miles from the U.S. coast.
USS Utah was decommissioned 5 Sept. 1944 and was stricken from the Naval resister on 13 Nov. 1944. Like the Arizona, she was more than a derelict, she was a war grave.
Unfortunately, an operation of this size had to have some fatalities. There were seven during the salvage operation.
Charles