8 



. TEST B: UNDERWATER EXPLOSION 



Test A was over. Sunken ships had been 

 marked with buoys. Inspections were complete. A 

 few repairs were made to damaged ships ; some wrecked 

 equipment was jettisoned. 



Eight Congressmen and thirty-nine press and radio 

 representatives returned to the United States. The 

 press representatives had radioed 1,000,000 words 

 on Test A to their home agencies. The press ship 

 APl^ALACHIAN made an interim trip to Pearl Har- 

 bor; PANAMINT and BLUE RIDGE made trips to 

 Truk, Guam, and other islands; SHANGRI-LA re- 

 turned to Roi. 



The wTather was good, and the 42,000 men of the 

 Task Force made excellent use of the recreation areas.* 



* The most leavening event of the interval between the tests 

 was a practical joke -perpetrated hy two members of the Bureau 

 of Ordnance lyistrumentation Group at the expense of their scien- 

 tific colleagues. On the evening of A-Day, after the support shijjs 

 had re-entered the Lagoon, Dr. C. W. Wyckoff aiid his friends on 

 the KENNETH WHITING were leaning against the railing at 

 the fantail, staring idly across the dark water. They had got up 

 at 4:00 a.m., and they were pretty well exhausted; they were re- 

 lieved that the Test had gone off successfully, and that there was 

 said to be no dangerous radioactivity about. Suddenly Dr. Wyck- 

 off's frieyids pointed to the water beneath them. The water there 



145 



