USS Atlanta (CL-104/IX-304) Sailor Hat Test Location

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The former Light Cruiser USS Atlanta (CL-104) was located here in 1965 during the US Navy's Operation Sailor Hat explosive effects testing program.

The Atlanta had been totally rebuilt at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard with a new superstructure and several radar and electronic arrays which were planned for future US Navy vessels and was ordered to serve as a target ship for large scale conventional explosive detonation effects tests. The goal of these tests were to figure out how the new technology & designs would respond to large, close quarter non-nuclear explosions. The Atlanta was fully manned during the tests, and was positioned progressively closer to the blast epicenter for each of the three detonations.

The Atlanta took a beating, but she as well as several other ships survived all three detonations, and lessons learned in the tests were put into the design of newer US Navy ships.

www.navsource.org/archives/04/104/04104.htm