An item dated San Francisco 23 January reported that the 10,000 measuring American battleship Independence used by the US navy during the atomic bomb test off Bikini was to be scuttled soon somewhere in the Pacific using a secret weapon according to tidings received from San Francisco.(1) The operation probably executed in February was top secret.
Note
1. She was part of the Cleveland light cruiser class build by the New York shipyard Corporation shipyard at Camden and was together with sister ships converted into small aircraft carriers. Originally she was laid down as the Amsterdam (CL59), since January 1942 reclassified as an aircraft carrier was she launched in August and commissioned in January a year later. As the Independence (CV/CVL-22) was she as surplus used in Operations Crossroads in July 1946 which were a series of nuclear weapon tests at Bikini. She was since 1946 used as a radiation research hulk and in contrary to the news item in January 1951 expended as a hulk. With a standard displacement of 11.000 tons were her dimensions 190 x 21.8 (hull)-33.3 (flight deck+projections) or 622’6”x 71’6”-109’2”.
