USS YAG 39 (ex SS George Eastman) on 12 November 1953 fitted for Operation Transit Able.
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Class: YAG 39 (YAG 39)
Design: MC EC2-S-C1
Displacement (tons): 3,890 light, 11,400 full
Dimensions (feet): 442' oa, 416' pp x 57' e/wl x 28' max nav
Armament: none
Accommodations: 4 officers, 45 enlisted
Speed (kts.): 11
Propulsion (HP): 2,500
Machinery: Steam triple expansion reciprocating, 2 boilers (220psi/450deg), 1 screw
Construction:
| YAG | Name | Acq | Builder | Keel | Launch | Comm |
| 39 | YAG 39 (ex-GEORGE EASTMAN) | 19 May 1953 | Permanente Metals #2 | 24 Mar 1943 | 20 Apr 1943 | 20 Oct 1953 |
| 40 | YAG 40 (ex-GRANVILLE S HALL) | 18 May 1953 | J A Jones, Panama City | 16 Sep 1944 | 24 Oct 1944 | -- |
Disposition:
| YAG | Name | T | Decomm | Strike | Disposal | Fate | MA Sale |
| 39 | YAG 39 (GEORGE EASTMAN) | 1967 | 1 Dec 1975 | 15 Jun 1976 | MA/S | -- | |
| 40 | YAG 40 (GRANVILLE S HALL) | 1971 | 10 May 1971 | 31 Jan 1972 | MA/S | -- |
Class Notes:
On 20 April 1953 SECNAV wrote to the Secretary of Commerce that the Navy had an urgent requirement for two Liberty ships. This matter had been discussed and a tentative agreement reached for their transfer as soon as practicable at Suisun Bay to the Navy. The Commerce Department agreed by letter on 5 May 1953. On 26 May 1953 SECNAV designated them as service craft and classified them YAG 39 (ex GEORGE EASTMAN) and YAG 40 (ex GRANVILLE S HALL). The Naval Vessel Register shows both ships as active from May 1953. YAG 40 was activated from MARAD layup and preliminary conversion work was completed by the Wagner and Niehaus Company of San Francisco followed by work at the U.S. Naval Shipyards at Mare Island and San Francisco and the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard.
During conversion in both ships a helicopter flight deck, about 50 feet square, was built above the rail over the No. 1 cargo hatch with a fir deck. The main deck cargo hatches were all decked over with steel plating. Nos. 1, 3, and 5 holds were filled with water for ballast and shielding. A control room was built in the No. 3 lower hold shielded from gamma radiation on all sides by at least 6 feet of water, producing a “Secondary Conn” from which both ship operation and project work were accomplished. The simple and rugged propulsion plant was found to be well suited for remote operation, at a distance by radio (CASTLE) or from the Secondary Control Room (WIGWAM and REDWING). (The main limitation was that the engine could not be reversed nor could it be stopped and restarted from a remote location.) The port side of No. 4 hold was decked over from the top of the shaft alley to the hull and a concrete slab, 1 foot thick, was poured on this deck, protecting a new room below it which was called the Recorder Room. Six ventilation systems were installed on YAG 40 at Mare Island to evaluate the ventilation hazards arising from radioactive aerosols, and a deckhouse was added over No. 3 hold on both ships to provide an equipment room for ventilation system contamination studies. On YAG 40 bulkheads were installed in the No. 3 ‘tween deck hold to form six test compartments with a center passageway and a ladder to the new deckhouse above, while on YAG 39 only one compartment was installed. These spaces were used in connection with ventilation hazard assessments in Operation CASTLE. An obsolete 3” gun with a gun shield was installed on each side at the after end of No. 2 hatch so that the effectiveness of water washdown systems on typical gun and gun tub arrangements could be evaluated in Operation CASTLE. A wood deck of fir was installed on the boat deck as an experimental surface. All hold cowl vents were removed and blanked, dogged covers were installed in the six engine room cowl vents, and the engine room skylight was replaced with a deck with a large dogged watertight hatch. For Operations WIGWAM a shielded laboratory was constructed on YAG 40 in No. 1 hold on top of the forward deep tanks, completely surrounded like the control room by ballast water, and it was enlarged and modified for Operation REDWING. Numerous other additions were made after Operation CASTLE, most conspicuously a sampling platform approximately 20 feet in diameter on top of a forward kingpost of each ship for fallout collection during Operation REDWING. A washdown system was installed with nozzles located to wash all weather surfaces except kingposts. The normal crew of the YAGs was about 45 men and 4 officers, but during REDWING they were operated for periods of 3-4 days bu crews of15 to 18 men with 10 project personnel on YAG 39 and 16 project personnel on YAG 40. After REDWING additional modifications were made to the YAGs for their participation in "a subsequent BUSHIPS sponsored project" (TRANSIT III).
On 11 September 1953 the BUSHIPS Project Officer for Operation CASTLE assigned the code name TRANSIT to cover conversion, outfitting, installation of special equipment, and operation of two specially configured ex-Liberty ships for participation in atomic weapon tests. It was intended for use on plans and other paperwork for the two ships in lieu of operational names. Subsequent to Operation CASTLE (TRANSIT I), the two TRANSIT ships participated in Operation WIGWAM (TRANSIT II). As of December 1955 the TRANSIT ships were being prepared for two more operations, TRANSIT III (TRANSIT III), to be conducted during fiscal year 1956, and REDWING (TRANSIT IV). The ships were also initially given individual identifications, YAG 39 as TRANSIT ABLE and YAG 40 as TRANSIT BAKER.
The two ships underwent final trials and a material inspection on 4 January 1954 by the Board of Inspection and Survey at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard. (Trials had also been conducted on YAG 40 on 23 November 1953.) The trials consisted of speed and combustion remote control, steering remote control, two vessel station keeping, and washdown system control (TRANSIT ABLE only). The INSURV Board recommended final acceptance of YAG 40 for restricted service as of 9 January 1954. Other mission-related work was performed later at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard before the ship reported for restricted naval service. In March and April 1954 the ships participated in Operation CASTLE (6 high yield underwater tests at Bikini and Enewetak, then called Eniwetok), the first there since Operation IVY in 1952 (see the YAG 36 class). Yields in the CASTLE tests were far higher than predicted. The Naval Vessel Register shows both ships being reduced to reserve/out of service status in June 1954 following the tests.
The Naval Vessel Register then shows both ships as active from February 1955 until going into reserve/out of service status at San Diego in September 1957. Both served in May 1955 in Operation WIGWAM, a single deep underwater test in the Eastern Pacific at 29 degrees N, 126 degrees W and the only test in the Pacific in 1955. On 15 May 1955 MOLALA (ATF 106) with YAG 39 in tow departed the operational area at 6 knots for San Francisco with orders to report to the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory for decontamination and inspection, and on 17 May 1955 YAG 40 was to depart the operational area under her own power at 10 knots for San Francisco with similar orders.
On 6 October 1954, well before WIGWAM, CNO in a top secret letter approved the conduct of certain tests in the fields of BW and CW ship protection proposed by BUSHIPS in a top secret letter dated 8 October 1954. CNO on 24 November 1954 assigned to these tests the operational code name TRANSIT III, and on the same date BUSHIPS invited the Army Chemical Corps (including elements at Camp Detrick, Md., and the Dugway Proving Ground) and the Air Force to participate. The two ships would be given isolated docking facilities at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard. On 28 December 1954 BUSHIPS asked the Commandant, Twelfth Naval District, to grant YAG 39 and YAG 40 availability at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard for repair and modifications upon return from Operation WIGWAM about 1 June 1955, noting that the ships were scheduled to conduct Operation TRANSIT III, a BUSHIPS sponsored project, during FY 1956. COMTWELVE concurred on 11 January 1955. On 7 April 1955 BUSHIPS asked the San Francisco Naval Shipyard to proceed with preliminary design and planning studies for the alteration of YAG 39 and 40 for Operation TRANSIT III, and the shipyard began that work later in April. The major modification to be made on YAG 39 (the target ship, or BWCW defense test platform) was the installation of three experimental ventilation systems in the main deck house, in the ventilation equipment room on the main deck, and on the boat deck. The experimental ventilation systems contained special electrostatic precipitators, filters, closures, and sampling ports. The ship was also to receive an emergency sick bay and decontamination station in No. 3 hold second deck with its own ventilation system, 75 air sampling stations, instrumentation to record meteorological information including a recording van and temporary masts, and a small 1,000 lb. crane for handling material from the main or boat deck to small boats alongside. YAG 40 (the laboratory and command ship) was to receive a large biological preparation and assay laboratory (partly for processing animal remains) in holds 1, 2, and 3 with its own ventilation system and to have her crew accommodations increased to 50 officers and 100 men from her current 16 officers and 40 men, requiring the installation of new crew berthing, messing, and sanitary facilities in holds 4 and 5. She was also to receive a sick bay, expanded laundry facilities, increased fresh water and electrical capacities, plus meterological instrumentation and a crane like those in YAG 39. Finally YAG 40 was to get agent stowage and handling facilities in the after deck house with an agent dispenser float able to support 500 lbs. plus two men and capable of being towed at not over 3 knots and an optical range finder to measure the distance between the agent dispenser and the target vessel. In June 1956 it was decided that the boat complement of YAG 40 would be two 40' utility boats carried in new davits to starboard aft and one 26' uncovered metal life boat outfitted as a dispenser boat and would be handled to port with the existing boom and steam winch and towed by the 40' boats. (Photographs of the ships fitted for REDWING show utility boats on deck aft of the mainmast which had a ten ton boom.) An earlier report dated 4 May 1955 stated that "The possibility of women scientists working in the lab when the ship is at a berth was indicated. However a ladies retiring room is not to be installed."
On 12 May 1955 the operation’s Scientific Director, Dr. E. A. Ramskill, gave the Working Committee on Micrometeorology a description of a typical trial of Operation TRANSIT III based on the current concept. The primary objective of the operation was assessment of ship defenses. The two ships would normally operate out of San Diego for periods not exceeding three weeks. During that time it was hoped that 6-7 trials could be conducted. Weather forecasting and in particular the micrometeorology of the area would be critical factors in deciding to conduct a trial. Before agent could be released, some personnel (perhaps all) had to be transferred from the target to the control vessel, samples and animals (if used) had to be placed in position on the target vessel, the agent dissemination device had to be loaded and placed in position, the target vessel had to be positioned, and all safety features had to be checked. From the experience of the British it was estimated that a period of about two hours would be required after the decision to proceed until the agent was released. (On 5 July 1955 Ramskill when writing to a UK colleague mentioned experience that the British had had with a ship with animal pens, HMS BEN LOMOND.) The cloud would probably pass the target vessel in 2-10 minutes after the agent was released. The samplers and animals would then be collected and transferred to the control vessel for assay. In general the target vessel would not be manned during a trial. There might be a small technical crew aboard but they would remain generally in an isolated, protected space.
The original intent was to commence TRANSIT III sea trials in the fall of 1955, but CNO was instructed by higher authority to make YAG 39-40 available for operation REDWING (TRANSIT IV) in the spring of 1956, a directive that he implemented by a secret letter of 23 July 1955. Between 12 and 20 July 1955 YAG 40 tested out TRANSIT III operational concepts and equipment designs at sea in the planned operating area 200 miles off San Diego. TRANSIT III conversion work then commenced on 1 August 1955, installation of the TRANSIT III facilities started in November 1955 concurrent with TRANSIT IV work, and it was to end about 20 February 1956 with the TRANSIT III work about 85% complete. The ships would then not be available for TRANSIT III from the first week of March 1956 to late August.
During Operation REDWING (17 tests at Bikini and Enewetak between May and July 1956) the ships supported several projects concerned with fallout being sponsored by the Chemical Corps, Navy, and Air Force. In these tests, yields were closely controlled and monitored. A newspaper cites a crewmember during Operation REDWING as saying that "after a bomb was exploded, the crew crammed into the ship's converted ballast tanks, surrounded by water, and steamed into the deadly rain of radiation. Television cameras monitored the engine rooms and panned the horizon outside." The crews were to reboard the ships only hours after passing through such clouds to wash them down. On 7 August 1956 BUSHIPS requested the assignment of shipyard availabilities for YAG 39 and YAG 40 starting on 15 August 1956 at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard for decontamination and repairs after Operation REDWING and the completion all work incident to the start of TRANSIT III operations. These availabilities were to last for 90 days, thus to around 15 November 1956.
During January 1957 the two ships performed Cruise #1, the first of six TRANSIT III sea trials planned before tests with live agent. The cruise was intended to indoctrinate operating personnel in their duties, operate all equipment and systems under actual operational conditions, and conduct feasibility studies of planned operations, particularly with respect to the small boats that would be releasing the live agents. Small boat operations were hampered considerably by rough waters, being possible only about 40% of the time, but the ventilation systems and auxiliary equipment on the ships seemed to be substantially complete despite numerous small issues, particularly in the ventilations systems. The shipyard indicated that it was unable to correct deficiency items without funding for TRANSIT III, and possibly as a result a restricted availability was granted on 18 January 1957 to YAG 39 and YAG 40 commencing on 20 January 1957 to complete necessary modifications.
Just over three months later, on 1 May 1957, CNO sent a naval speedletter to the Commandant of the Twelfth Naval District, the Chief of BUSHIPS, and the Commander of the Western Sea Frontier directing the inactivation of YAG 39 and YAG 40 commencing as soon as practicable in FY 1957. The archived TRANSIT III files contain no references to “cruises” beyond Cruise #1, and the mention of the fiscal year in the inactivation directive suggests that the reasons for terminating TRANSIT III operations, evidently before a second trial cruise, were primarily budgetary. The shipyard planned to begin the inactivation availability for both ships on 12 June 1957 with drydocking in July. The Naval Vessel Register shows both ships going into reserve/out of service status at San Diego in September 1957. On 27 September 1957 COMTWELVE reported to the Commander Western Sea Frontier that YAG 39 would be ready for her tow from San Francisco to the reserve fleet at San Diego on 22 October 1957 and that YAG 40 would be ready for her tow by CAHOKIA (ATA 186) on 1 November 1957.
In an investigative article published on 22 October 1995 the Deseret News of Salt Lake City, Utah, reported concerning YAG 39 and YAG 40 that "one of the ships' first tests occurred in San Francisco Bay in 1956 as part of Operation Transit III," and then stated that "in September 1956, plans called for a 40-foot munition boat to create clouds of bacillus globigii germs that the EASTMAN would travel through and then turn over its sampling devices to labs on the HALL for study." Plans for operations like this may well have existed, but the implication that they were carried out in San Francisco Bay in September 1956 does not fit into the timeline reflected in archived TRANSIT III documents. The Deseret News article and a later one dated 24 May 2002 are still worth a look and may be found HERE and HERE.
The Naval Vessel Register shows both ships returning to active service in October 1962. YAG 40 was reactivated at San Francisco in May 1962 by the Triple A Machine Shop and both ships were reactivated at San Francisco on 20 October 1962 and departed that city on 15 November 1962 for Pearl Harbor. On 3 July 1963 the names GEORGE EASTMAN and GRANVILLE S HALL were officially restored to YAG 39 and YAG 40. (No such action was taken for YAG 36-38, which had been disposed of in 1958-60.) GEORGE EASTMAN returned to the West Coast from Pearl Harbor in April 1966 for a three-month overhaul. Tests reportedly occurred for years with both chemical and biological agents, usually in remote areas of the Pacific. An Army response to a Congressional inquiry in 1992 said that Project Shad (“Ship Habitation and Decontamination”) ships, probably including Dugway’s five Army LT-type tugs and other occasional participants, "participated in some 111 tests" from January 1963 to September 1965, but a series of tests then took place at Johnston Atoll between 1965 and 1968 and testing possibly lasted until President Nixon officially discontinued the program in 1972.
In 1970 GRANVILLE S HALL was monitoring American and foreign nuclear tests with funding and operational control directly from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. While at Tahiti on 13 April 1970 to monitor a French test (which the French then coincidentally delayed for three weeks) she briefly became the only ship in position to recover the stricken Apollo 13 lunar mission and ended up backing up USS IWO JIMA during the successful recovery on 17 April 1970.
Ship Notes:
| YAG | Name | MCE | Notes |
| 39 | YAG 39 (GEORGE EASTMAN) | 1104 | (ex-GEORGE EASTMAN, compl. 5 May 1943). FY 1953. In USN reserve 1954-55 and 1957-62. Name originally dropped, restored 3 Jul 1963. To MA 1976, to buyer 12 Jul 1976. |
| 40 | YAG 40 (GRANVILLE S HALL) | 2325 | (ex-GRANVILLE S HALL, compl. 7 Nov 1944). FY 1953. In USN reserve 1954-55 and 1957-62. Name restored 3 Jul 1963. To MA 1972, sold by MA as a ship outside its EC2 disposal program, to buyer 9 Mar 1972 at Pearl Harbor. |
Page Notes:
Compiled: 20 Oct 2021
© Stephen S. Roberts, 2021
Special sources: NARA: RG 19 Entry P 18 Boxes 1, 3 (TRANSIT III). See above for online newspaper sources.