Jack Benny – Aboard The Saratoga Four Days Before It Sank. 460421

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Don announces the show is broadcast from the decks of the Saratoga. Jack shares how proud he is to give the show just before it sails for atom bomb tests at the Bikini Atoll next week. Mel plays a sailor, but a gag involves a few of the ships officers. Mary enters to tease Jack about his oldd Navy days, and tell a little about her tour of the ship. Dennis Day enters, and Jack gives him a lesson on what an atomic bomb is. Dennis claims to have sang on the ship the year before, when he was in the Navy and served on it. Will he ever get to tell his racy joke? Dennis sings, I’ll Remember April.

Phil makes his appearance to complain about Jack’s comment about his orchestra. He shares a little about why he and Frankie Remley are so close. Mary teases Jack about their night on the town the night before. Mr Kitzel enters with a flashback to a baseball scene, and his hot dog cart song, Pickle in the Middle and Mustard on Top.

A telegram comes in congradulating Jack on being an honorable Admiral, an award that happened the year before. Mary goes into flashback to tell all about the incident. Rochester joins Mary to poke fun at being in the Nebraska Navy. Jack demonstrates his expert Naval strategy with his ships in his bathtub. Afterward, Jack reads a letter of commendation from a formerly serving chaplain to the Saratoga, honoring her service in the war

Note: The USS Saratoga was constructed in 1916, as a battle cruiser, and served in the First World War. Later, in 1922, she was converted into an aircraft carrier.
Despite The show’s title, the show wasn’t 4 days before it sank, though it may have been 4 days before it set sail on it’s final mission. The following exerpt is from Wikipedia:

Operation Crossroads began with the first blast (Test Able), an air burst on 1 July 1946. Saratoga survived the explosion with only minor damage, notably the ignition of the teak of her flight deck. A skeleton crew boarded Saratoga the following day to prepare her for the next test on 25 July. The ship was sunk by Test Baker, an underwater blast which was detonated under LSM-60 400 yards (370 m) from the carrier. The explosion literally blew the ship out of the water, knocked everything off her flight deck and knocked most of her funnel onto the flight deck. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 August 1946.