USS Saratoga
Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands
Bob Hope probably said it best: "We located the one spot on Earth that hadn't been touched by the war and blew it to hell."
That one spot was Bikini Atoll, a tiny Pacific paradise in the Marshall Islands that had somehow gone overlooked in the Pacific Theater, and the event was Operation Crossroads, a pair of atomic tests designed to evaluate the effects of aerial and underwater nuclear blasts on a fleet of 90 unmanned naval vessels.
Unsurprisingly, the effect was that the blasts sank quite a few of them.
But the largest vessel of them all - the 888-foot aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, longer even than the Titanic - actually survived the first bomb. It took the second blast - a nuclear explosion so powerful that it vaporized three islands - to send the giant ship to the bottom. Even then, it sank slowly, stern first, settling into 190 feet of water.
Because it went into the test outfitted as it would be for war - fuel bunkers filled, airplanes in its hanger deck and primed munitions - Saratoga is now the only site in the world where a diver can visit a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier that sank "battle-ready."
Bikini Atoll is not the usual South Pacific vacation spot - if you come here, you are not only a diver; you're probably also a trained tek diver. The Saratoga is the shallowest wreck in the fleet, with the initial "checkout dive" generally beginning at 90 feet of depth on the flight deck, and then proceeding to the bridge, which rises to within 40 feet of the
surface. Later dives produce the better perspectives - hover about 50 feet off the bow, and you get an idea of how gigantic the ship really is.
For those sufficiently trained, the Saratoga is an amazing snapshot of what state-of-the-art naval power looked like more than 60 years ago. It has all the drama of a ship sunk in battle, yet not a single sailor's life was lost in its sinking.
Quick Guide:
Bikini Atoll Divers (bikiniatoll.com), a subsidiary of the Bikini Atoll Local Government Council, owns and operates the dive and sport-fishing program on Bikini Atoll, and is the best single source of information for diving - and getting to - Bikini Atoll. Check out Caradonna Dive Adventures (caradonna.com) for a selection of dive travel-package options. The Marshall Islands Visitors Authority (visitmarshallislands.com) maintains transportation, accommodation and activity information regarding the 29 atolls and five single islands of the Marshalls.
POST A COMMENT