THE STORY OF LST- 491

 

Hi everyone!  Are you ready for a  weird story?  . Unexpectedly this  story is as hilarious as tragic  and it is set in the US. Even more unexpectedly it regards nuclear waste. I’m more precisely going to tell you  about  the ship ‘’LST- 491’’ .

 

Built in 1943  for military purposes, the ship was employed  to transport heavy loads like tanks, then its use extended to get rid of unexploded bombs  and it isn’t difficult to figure out what the destination of these bombs was: they dropped them into the ocean. The crew on the boat knew nothing about  it.

 

In 1956 the name of the boat was changed in ‘’U.S.S Calhoun County‘’ in honour of John C. Calhoun , the vice president of the United States known for strongly defending slavery,   and its employ was extended to get rid of nuclear waste  and, once again,  the sailors were unaware of the matter .

 

Obviously,  they had no special protections from radiations and the disposal of the waste was pretty singular indeed:  they filled the barrels with heavy things to make them sink and if they didn’t sink there was a sailor who had to shoot on them to make the gas spurt out. Sometimes if a  barrel emerged even fighter planes were used to shoot them.

 

Naturally after some time the sailors realized what was happening ( but not completely )  , and to quell complaints.

The Navy allowed them to substitute the contaminated deck of the ship which  was substituted by the same sailors without security measures and the contaminated materials were thrown into the ocean. Then it didn’t take long for a trial to start and after some investigations everything emerged and a study demonstrated that in one single hour on the ship the sailors received the equivalent of 1,700 radiographies in radiations.

In the end, in 1962,  the ship was used as a target for military practice and was sent into the depths of the ocean.

 

Isn’t it one more proof of human silliness? At least, this is my opinion. That’s all for this post, I hope you enjoyed my weird little story.  

 

Looking forward to seeing you next month 

 

Giordano C., 4sc