BOMBS AT BIKINI 



The target fleet was rearranged somewhat. The cen- 

 tral ship was to be LSM-60 ; the bomb was to be sus- 

 pended some distance beneath her in a watertight steel 

 caisson. An especially tall antenna mast had been in- 

 stalled to permit line-of-sight transmission of the coded 

 radio signal which was to fire the bomb. 



Nearest to the LSM-60, but well over five hundred 

 ft. away, were the aircraft carrier SARATOGrA and 

 the thirty-four year old battleship ARKANSAS. These 

 were both moored broadside to the bomb, to receive the 

 maximum impact. Nearby were the concrete oil barge 

 YO-160, the submarines PILOTFISH, SKIPJACK, 

 and APOGON, and the Japanese battleship NAGrATO. 

 In all there w^ere seventy-four target vessels fixed in 

 predetermined positions. Roughly forty ships and/or 

 small craft were located within one mile of the Zero- 

 point, and twenty of these were actually within one 

 half mile. 



was distinctly luminous. They watched fascinated, then called more 

 colleagues. They exchanged anxious questions as to whether a 

 chance accumulation of radioactive materials might he the cause. 

 If so, gamma radiation might that very moment he penetrating their 

 bodies. They called Dr. J. E. Henderson, who arrived quickly bring- 

 ing, on sudden inspiration, a piece of radioactive glass picked up 

 months before at Alamogordo, Neiv Mexico. Borrowing a Geiger 

 counter, he quickly found that the mysterious glow was harmless 

 and certainly a hoax, but he told no one. Instead, he surreptitiously 

 placed the radioactive glass near the Geiger counter and allowed 

 his colleagues to come to the dread conclusion that the glow was 

 indeed highly radioactive. But before the alarm had reached too 

 high a pitch, he made a confession, and Dr. Wyckoff reeled in the 

 long black string by which his waterproof flashlight had been 

 suspended. 



146 



