Evening star., 1946-07-25
Bikiinii
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rescue of the Saratoga, under orders
from the Task Force Commander
Vice Adirmal w. H. P. Blandy, to
try to beach her, had to turn back
and let the gallant old lady die
alone.
New York, Nagato Listing.
The battleship New York and
the Japanese battleship Nagato
were listing, evidently damaged, as
were the battered carrier Inde-
pendence, the destroyer Hughes, the
transport Fallon and the heavy
cruiser Pensacola.
A reef and 10 miles of blue
Pacific separated this ship from
the target feet when the bomb
went off. Observers had their
glasses On the mast of small land
ing craft that was above the sub
merged atom bomb.
A voice on the ships loudspeaker
droned off the seconds and the
worlds fifth atomic bomb was set
off by remote radio controls.
An almost incredibly white dome
of water rose where the slim mast
had stood. 1t glowed momeptarily
Then it spread, at first wide and
fat, to perhaps half a mile in
breadth. Suddenly it shot upward
with lightning speed.
At the top of the dome, the water
spread in a great wide column with
rotirInI T,, h.
top widened like grotesque mush-
room, whose thick stem by that time
was nearly half-mile wide at the
base, which in turn was boiling
upward.
The air mushroom spread out to
more than a mile wide. All this
time the entire display was dazzling
white.
Waves Spread Out.
Then from the widening edges OF
the mushroom umbrella pure white
streaming down toward the ships
Many of these sprays were far larger
than any of the big battleships.
AT this moment must have been
occurring one of the almost incred-
ible phenomena of atomic energy
Water thrown against the Saratoga
crushed her massive stack, knock
ing half of it to the flight deck.
A series of waves spread from the
spot where the bomb was detonated
They raced out toward the ships
outside the lagoon and some poured
over a small island off Bikini's
shore. The main island was not
inundated. Admiral Blandy esti-
mated the wave was 7 to 10 feet
high at Bikini Island-lower than
had been expected.
Ships rocked. The hot force of
the bombs conclusion was felt by
some observers outside the lagoon.
Parts of target ships equipment,
mattresses and the like, undulated
on the waves.
Slowly the mist began to clear.
Some of the target ships became
visible again.
Effort to Beach Saratoga Fails.
Men who had expected many of
the ships to be gone were amazed
to see them floating where they
last had seen them.
But all efforts to find the Arkan-
sas, a concrete yard oiler, a tank
landing ship and the medium land
ing ship over the bomb, were futile.
They simply had disappeared.
The supporting ships began mov-
ing toward the lagoon.
Hours later a plane reported that
the Saratoga was going down. Ad-
niral Blandy, boss of the Cross
roads Operation, sent tugs into the
lagoon to try to beach her, but in
vain. A destroyer had raced into
the lagoon and out again earlier.
EltonaC. Fay, Associated Press re-
porter aboard the flagship Mt. Nc
Kinley, said patrol teams later
entered the lagoon in gunboats and
transferred to launches. They were
seen skirting the edges of the array.
Less than nine hours after the
explosion, this ship entered the
lagoon, but anchored some distance
from the targets.
Some Ships Now Safe.
Col. Stafford Warren, the radio
logical safety chief, said half a
dozen target ships on the outer rim
of the array were free of contamina-
ton when patrol teams got there.
He said it might be several days
before the ships near the center of
the feet could be boarded safely.
The colonel said a rain of death
dealing fission particles came down
In the lagoon Immediately after the