U. S. S. HAVEN (AH-12)
29 July 1946
[Address]
Dear Mr. President:
Accompanying this letter is our second prelim-
inary report which we submit for your information
and such use as you may care to make of it. Any
final report must await additional scientific data
now being obtained. We also send you herewith some
charts and pictures that may be helpful to you.
May we, as we leave
Bikini Lagoon for home, tell
you how much we have appreciated your honoring us
by your appointment to this Commission. You have
given us a wonderful opporunity to view at first
hand these experiments with atomic energy and the
skill, efficiency and fairness with which they have
been conducted.
Sincerely yours,
U. S. S. HAVEN (AH-12)
29 July 1946
[Address]
Dear Mr. President:
Your acknowledgment on
July 7th of our preliminary
report on the first test at
Bikini was much appreciated.
The second test was conducted in the same area,
July 25th local time, and on the same target
ships less
those sunk in the first test. The bomb was exploded
under a moderate depth of water at 8:35 a..m. local time
on schedule. Weather conditions were perfect. Seven
members of your committee witnessed the results from
the U.S.S. HAVEN stationed eleven miles from the point
where the bomb exploded. There was no requirement of
dark glasses for this test and the target ships were
readily visible to the naked eye and easily distinguish-
able with the aid of binoculars.
Our previous report endeavored to express our ap-
preciation of the cooperation, assistance and unfailing
courtesy extended by Admiral
Blandy and by the officers
and enlisted men and civilian scientific personnel of
Joint Task Force ONE. Throughout, this attitude of
interest and diligence has remained at the same high
level and the effect of longer observation of operations
and better acquaintance with officers and men, has been
to convince us that you and the people of the United
States can place the utmost reliance on the fairness,
thoroughness and real effort for the maximum of honest
information which has characterized these tests. This
disposition has expedited and lightened our task in
complying with your directive. These tests have consis-
tently adhered to the stated purpose of the mission:
--"primarily to determine the effects of the atomic bomb
on naval vessels in order to gain information of value
to the national defense".
In the interval between tests the target ships were
redeployed in respect to the point chosen for the second
explosion, so as to furnish maximum scientific and tech-
nical information from expected results.
When the bomb exploded the battleship ARKANSAS
nearest to the center of impact and 3 other
smaller
ships sank at once. The aircraft carrier SARATOGA
also placed close by, sank 7 1/2 hours later. As soon
as radioactivity lessened sufficiently to permit safe
operations the destroyer HUGHES and the APA
FALLON
were beached to prevent their possible sinking. Of
the eight submarines involved six were submerged.
Several of these appear to be injured and one at least
has gone to the bottom. The two on the surface are
not noticeably injured. All but a few of the target
ships were drenched with radio-active sea-water,
and
all within the zone of evident damage are still unsafe
to board. It is estimated that the radioactivity dis-
persed in the water was the equivalent to that from
many hundred tons of radium.
We believe that interesting distinctions between
the general results of the two explosions can even
now be drawn without the risk of serious error:
Both explosions sank several ships. From the
limited observation we have thus far been able to make,
the ships remaining afloat within the damage area
appear to have been more seriously damaged by the
aerial explosion than by the submarine explosion.
The damage to ships in the first test might have been
far greater if the bomb had exploded directly over
the target ship, the NEVADA.
In the first test much of the personnel within
the ships would have received fatal doses of neutrons
and gamma rays from the first deadly flash. On the
other hand, the deadly effects of persistent radio-
activity would have been much more severe in the second
test. Had the target array been manned it seems clear
that casualities and both physical and psychological
injury to personnel would have been very great. Rescue
and attention to casualities would be difficult and dang-
erous. Within 2,000 yards of explosion ships would
probably have been in-operative and a lapse of weeks
might week ensue before relatively undamaged ships
could again be used in combat.
The second bomb caused a deluge of water loaded
with deadly radioactive elements over an area that em-
braced 90% of the target array. Such results might be
as disastrous to the fleet as results of the first
test, although in part for different reasons. An
enemy possessed of two or more bombs might well so
dispose them, as to create simultaneously the deadly
features of both tests. Such tactics might effectively
dispose of a fleet for many months -- for example,
consider a
Pearl Harbor attack on these lines.
The results of both tests are already under study
by the Bureau of Ships and will undoubtedly point the
way to changes in ship size, design and structure both
above and below the water line. Such changes can offer
increased immunity to flash and blast effects, but pro-
tection from catastrophe by deadly gamma and neutron
radiations lies rather in wide spacing of task forces
and decentralization of navy yards, repair and loading
facilities, of ships within ports and amongst all
available harbors. We are convinced distance is the
best defense.
As was demostrated by the terrible havoc wrought
at
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, the Bikini tests strongly
indicate that future wars exploying atomic energy may
well destroy nations and change present standards of
civilization.
To us who have witness the devastating effects
of these tests, it is evident that if there is to be
any security or safety in the world, war must be elim-
inated as a means of settling differences among nations.
Chairman,
For the Commission.