THE ARCHEOLOGY OF THE ATOMIC BOMB: A SUBMERGED CULTURAL RESOURCES ASSESSMENT OF THE SUNKEN FLEET OF OPERATION CROSSROADS AT BIKINI AND KWAJALEIN ATOLL LAGOO NS REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS Prepared for: The Kili/Bikini/Ejit Local Government Council By: James P. Delgado Daniel J. Lenihan (Principal Investigator) Larry E. Murphy Illustrations by: Larry V. Nordby Jerry L. Livingston Submerged Cultural Resources Unit National Maritime Initiative United States Department of the Interior National Park Service Southwest Cultural Resources Center Professional Papers Number 37 -Santa Fe, New Mexico 1991 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . iii FOREWORD . vii Secretary of the Interior, Manuel Lujan, Jr. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................... ix CHAPTER ONE: Introduction . 1 Daniel J. Lenihan Project Mandate and Background . 1 Methodology . 4 Activities . 7 CHAPTER TWO: Operation Crossroads . 11 James P. Delgado The Concept of a Naval Test Evolves . 14 Preparing for the Tests . 18 The Able Test . 23 The Baker Test . 27 Decontamination Efforts . 29 The Legacy of Crossroads . 31 The 1947 Scientific Resurvey . 34 CHAPTER THREE: Ship's Histories for the Sunken Vessels 43 James P. Delgado USS Saratoga ............... .... ......................... 43 USS Arkansas . 52 HIJMS Nagato . 55 HIJMS Sakawa . 59 USS Prinz Eugen . 60 USS Anderson . 64 USS Lamson . 66 USS Apogon . 70 USS Pilotfish . 72 USS Gilliam . 73 USS Carlisle . 74 ARDC-13 ................................................. 76 Y0-160 .................................................. 76 LCT-414, 812, 1114, 1175, and 1237 . 77 CHAPTER FOUR: Site Descriptions . 85 James P. Delgado and Larry E. Murphy Introduction . 85 Reconstructing the Nuclear Detonations . 86 Site Descriptions: Vessels Lost During the Able Test . 90 USS Gilliam . 90 e USS Carlisle . 92 Site Descriptions: Vessels Lost During the Baker Test . 93 USS Arkansas . 93 USS Saratoga . 100 USS Pilotfish . 124 USS Apogon . 125 Y0-160 . 127 HIJMS Nagato . 128 LCT-1175 . 132 Site Descriptions: Vessels Lost After the Test . 134 USS Prinz Eugen . 134 Final Observations . 136 CHAPTER FIVE: The Significance of the Sunken Vessels of Operation Crossroads James P. Delgado . 143 Monuments and Memorials to the Dawn of the Atomic Age . 144 Insuring the Navy's Survival in the Age of the Bomb . 145 A Demonstration of Wealth and Power . 148 Crossroads as a Spectacle and Demonstration . 150 Learning to Live with the Bomb . 153 The Reality of the Bomb: Radioactive Fears . 154 Crossroads at the Bottom of the Sea . 157 Confronting the Atomic Age . 158 CHAPTER SIX: Nuclear Park Potential 163 Daniel J. Lenihan Precedent . 163 Park Appeal . 163 Park Protection . 165 Interpretive/Educational Devices . 166 Diving Safety/Liability . 168 Special Diving Hazards: Explosives, Radiation . 169 Environmental Hazards Posed by Ships . 170 Mooring Systems . 170 Conclusions and Recommendations . 170 APPENDIX I: Target Vessels at Bikini and Their Disposition 173 APPENDIX II: Relics of Operation Crossroads . 177 APPENDIX III: Estimates of Radiological Dose at Bikini (W. L. Robison, 1990) 179 APPENDIX IV: Archeological Site Record Forms for the Documented Shipwrecks . 189 BIBLIOGRAPHY 197 SUBMERGED CULTURAL RESOURCES UNIT REPORT AND PUBLICATION SERIES ............. 205 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CHAPTER ONE Bikini Atoll, from a 1947 Navy Chart . xii Commander David McCampbell locates and plots the wreck locations . 3 The Navy's Explosive Ordnance Demolition Unit One safes a 350-lb. depth bomb . 3 Lengthy oxygen decompression stops were required . 5 Boat launching by front-end loader . 6 Daniel Lenihan, Larry Nordby and Jerry Livingston compare notes . 6 The Bikini Council's dive team takes measurements on Saratoga . 9 The system of trilateration used to map the wrecks is discussed . 10 CHAPTER TWO Target area at Bikini, 1946 . 11 Admiral W. H. P. Blandy, commander of Joint Task Force One 13 The Able Target Array, showing the actual point of detonation . 16 The Baker Target Array, showing the actual point of detonation . 17 A Mark III "Fat Man" bomb casing . 18 Press release chart depicting "scrap" costs of Operation Crossroads . 21 Two goats aboard USS Niagara . 22 Nevada, the target vessel for Able . 23 Journalists aboard LCT-52 inspect USS In dependence after Able . 24 Able's mushroom cloud towers over Bikini Atoll . 25 Able, from Bikini Island . 25 LSM-60 suspended the bomb detonated during Baker . 26 Baker blasts out of the lagoon after detonation . 27 Navy tug sprays down USS New York after Baker . 29 Decontamination efforts aboard Prinz Eugen . 30 Pennsylvania is scuttled off Kwajalein . 32 The Bikini Scientific Resurvey teams lands at Bikini, 1947 35 Divers prepare to descend on.