August 26,°1964
(cont.)
times in circles, when last seen were swimming away into the
sunset.
Wm. Allen and other Marshallese searched the island for
small
coconut crabs,
collection.
in the hope we might add a
A number of
crabs,
no real small ones were found.
4-15
inches,
few more to Ed's
were captured,
but
Extinguished fire on Island.
Engines were started as soon as all hands were back from
the island and at 12:15 P.M. the anchor was up and the ship
underway.
We left the lagoon by the northeast passage and by’
2:30 had made the turn around Rongelap Island and started west.
We passed just south of Ailinginae Atoll at 5-6 P.M.
into the sunset .
Ailinginae.
and on west
The Rongelap people apparently do not use
It would seem they have plenty of land area to
develop for copra, breadfruit,
Pandanus,
forget about handouts and go to work.
etc. if they would just
The big mistake would be
to give them the $1,000,000,000 some of them keep talking about.
The night at sea was just beautiful with a very slight
following breeze.
The inside of the ship was hot as h--- so
some of us spent a major part of the night up on the deck above
the bridge.
We even saw a satellite travel from S.W. to N.E.