Evening star., 1946-07-28
Two Cruisers Added
To LIST Of Warships
Damaged al Bikini
BY the As.eeieted Press

AboAfLO ". .. .. MoON NC
KINLEY, Sunday. July 23.-The
chief OF construction of the Navy
Bureau of Ships added the cruisers
Pensacola and Salt Lake City to
the list of target vessels damaged
by Thursdays underwater atomic
bomb-but removed the battleship
New York from the wounded list.
Vice Admiral Edward Cochrane
also predicted that the Japanese
battleship Nagato, listing badly,
"unquestionably will be lost"
Admiral Cochrane said the New
York was not damaged at all
The admiral also declared that
the battleship Nevada was not
damaged by the underwater bomb,
SO far as was known. The Nevada
had been added to the list of ships
apparently damaged.
The Pensacola and Salt Lake City,
he said, are listing to starboard. The
battleship Pennsylvania. he added,
is one foot down at the stern.
Suggests Faster Ships.
Admiral Cochrane suggested that
one of the Navy's future moves to
meet atomic warfare might be to
build more light, fast ships. rather
than going extensively into heavy
construction.
Bikini lagoon was still so danger
ously radioactive that only fast
moving patrol boats made quick
dashes to the edges Of the invisible
radiation walls" that hemmed in
the targets.
Some of the vessels damaged
seemed in no immediate danger OF
sinking.
An undetermined number of the
target vessels, however, are due to
be scuttled or otherwise sunk after
all available data has been cleaned
from their virtually worthless car
cases, Vice Admiral W. H. P. Blandy
indicated.
Admiral Blandy, top commander
OF the Operations Crossroads"
tests, said remaining small craft
probably would be scuttled within
the lagoon and that big ships would
be disposed of at sea with orthodox
weapons"
The Navy thus would get In
some target practice, he intimated,
adding. There would be no use
cluttering up what may be stra-
tegic anchorage some of these days"
Nagato Still Listing.
In the useless big ship class is
the Nagato. rugged old 32,720-ton
junk-pile which thus far has sur
vived heavy war damage and both
the atomic blast Of July / and the
underwater explosion of July 25
The Nagato still was listing today
but some observers noted that the
rate of list had slowed.
Admiral Blandy said he intended
to refer each vessel to Washington
before ordering 1t sunk or returned
to Pearl Harbor or California, even
though the chief Of naval opera
tions has given him on-the-spot
authority to dispose of target ships
as he sees fit.
Admiral Blandy said he intended
to stay in Bikini lagoon with his
flagship, Mt. Mckinley, at least un-
til the middle of August to direct
inspection of remaining ships OF
the target feet.
| Daring crews Of Navy tugs
beached the destroyer Hughes and
transport Fallon to prevent their
sinking. so that the actual toll OF
sunken ships from the underwater
bombs remained at three: the bat
tie ship Arkansas, carrier Saratoga
and q yard oiler, not counting the
Ism go from which the bomb was
suspended.
The number of damaged ships
still was undetermined
One submerged submarine, the
Tuna, was surfaced and on quick
inspection seemed to be unchanged.
Admiral Blandy said air was bubb-
ling up from the position of another
the Apagon.