The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-07-02
By JOSEPH L. MYLER

Aboard the U. $. $. Mt. McKin- ley in Bikini Lagoon, July 2-CUP)- Secretary of Navy James F'orrestal and Vice Admiral w. H. F. Blandy today risked a slight exposure to radioactivity to inspect atomic dev- astation in Bikini Lagoon on Able Day Plus One and witness the l- nal agony of the Japanese light cruiser SakaWa.
 Ehe SakaWa, her SuperStructure flattened and her stern open to the sea, started slipping under while Forrestal and the commander of Joint Task Force One were looking over the blasted light carrier Inde- pendence from the deck of a picket boat.
 Unmindful of radioactivity still lingering aboard the ships in the target arrays bullseye circle, Blan- dy ordered the picket boat full speed ahead" as soon as he heard the information shouted from the salvage tug that the SakaWa was going down.
 Watch Fascinated
 FIJI O oO1Vll liaiRdVSoJ ! oi NcSNA Blardy and others of their party watched fascinatedly from 50 yards away while the 6,00OO ton Japanese vessel gradually gave up the ghost.
 Her stern resting on the bottom and listing to the left, the SakaWa finally disappeared in greenish foam at 10:42 A. M.
 Blandy braved gamma radiation for a closeup view of heavy-hulled submarine Skate-hardest hit of seventy-three craft subject to atomic violence in yesterdays test burst.
 Blandy's deputy for technical di- recMon, Rear Admiral w. s. Par sons, expressed belief tine Skate was closest of all the targets to the bomb burst. He said she was subjected to more than five hundreds pounds pressure square inch.
 May Beach Sub
 The Skate was about fifty yards astern of the Nevada, aiming point of the array of ships, when the bomb burst. Because of her wrecked con- dition she was lowed out of the ar ray today and may be beached if inspection shows she is taking water.
 James Nolan of St. Louis, radio loeist of the Los Alamos, N. M. atomic laboratory, carried Geiger Counter which registered radioac- HviSy on its dial by earphones.
 After the pdcket boat circled the Skate and was lying off alongside, Nolan reported recitation was so in- tens@e that the counter was off the scale'-meaning there was more radioactivity than the sensitive in- strument could register.
 Biandy laughed and said, Tets get the hell out of here
 Get Out Anyhow
 He explained to Forrestal, how ever, that Nolan's counter was so delicate that my luminous watch dial will make it go of the scale" Nevertheless the picket boat got out of there-but not before those aboard got a good look at the Skates bruised weather deck and tower.
 The tower had been biased over- board on the starboard side and the entire steel deck structure had been ripped open and mangled from bow to stern.
 The heavy steel beams had been twisted like taffy, exposing the hull 10 pressure.
 The hull seemed outwardly to be intact, but was bashed in several places aft.
 Explains Pressure Resistance
 Blandy explained that modern submarines were capable of with standing terrific pressures because the hulls necessarily are thicker tha nthose of any surface craft.
 Throughout the area where the atomic damage was greatest and in the more remote parts of the array where fires had started, the smell of stale smoke filled the air like that which hangs over building where lremen have put out a blaze This odor and Nolan's periodic an- nouncements of how his Geiger