Ghost Fleet: The Sunken Ships of Bikini Atoll - Hardcover

Delgado, James P.

4.39

31 ratings by Goodreads

9780824818647: Ghost Fleet: The Sunken Ships of Bikini Atoll

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0824818644 ISBN 13: 9780824818647

Publisher: Univ of Hawaii Pr, 1996

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In July 1946 a fleet of 242 ships, among them some of the most famous of World War II, assembled within the lagoon of Bikini Atoll, 4,500 miles from San Francisco. There, in a massive military effort dubbed Operation Crossroads, thousands of scientists and U.S. military personnel gathered to assess the atomic bomb's effect on warships in the world's first nuclear weapons tests.

Four decades later, in 1989, a highly trained team of underwater archaeologists returned to Bikini to evalu-ate the ships as historic and archaeological sites and as potential diving attractions. In Ghost Fleet, author James Delgado, a member of that team, offers a fascinating account of Operation Crossroads and the forgotten remains that have turned Bikini's lagoon into a vast underwater ghost town.

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From Library Journal:

In 1946, the United States began a series of nuclear tests on Bikini Atoll to determine the impact of atomic bombs on armored naval ships. Amid much fanfare, the military assembled a fleet of surplus ships from World War II, carefully mooring them in the lagoon, and exploded nuclear bombs both in the air and under the water. Delgado, a noted marine archaeologist with the National Park Service, visited Bikini in the late 1980s to explore and document the condition of the sunken ships. His work is more than an archaeological study; it is the history of the nuclear age. Meticulously researched, it chronicles the development of the bomb, its deployment in Japan, the preparations for the tests, the attempted clean-up afterward, and the beginning of the Cold War. Many of the photographs and diagrams were first published by the National Park Service in a study entitled The Archaeology of the Atomic Bomb (1991). A good purchase for public and academic libraries.
John Kenny, San Francisco P.L.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review:

"[Delgado's] work is more than an archaeological study; it is the history of the nuclear age. Meticulously researched, it chronicles the development of the bomb, its deployment in Japan, the preparations for the tests, the attempted cleanup afterward, and the beginning of the Cold War."

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