The second test on July 25, 1946, was named "Baker" and the bomb had the code name "Helen of Bikini." It was deonated 90 feet underwater, which resulted in radioactive sea spray that caused considerable contamination on nearby ships.
According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Evaluation Board, it was a serious and unexpected problem. The radioactive water that spewed from the lagoon 'contaminated" the ships, which became "radioactive stoves, and would have burned all living things aboard with invisible, painless but deadly radiation."
It also meant that the task force personnel assigned to the salvage work had to deal with contamination. The original plan was to decontaminate the ships at the site, and that was only halted after military and civilian personnel had been exposed to radioactive substances.
A third deep-water test that was to have been named "Charlie," and scheduled for the summer of 1947, was canceled due to the Navy's inability to decontaminate the target ships of the "Baker" test.
--GreGen
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