Fifty-nine years ago this week, Holland Island Bar Light came under attack by U.S. Navy bombers. Four people were aboard the lighthouse when the bombs started falling on Feb. 19, 1957. It is unclear from the sketchy reports I’ve seen what the exact mix in that crowd was among keepers, maintenance workers, or others. Needless to say, they all scrambled for cover. All of them seem to have escaped serious injury.
It was all a training exercise gone horribly wrong. The three ADSN Skyraiders from the Naval Air Station in Atlantic City, NJ were supposed to bomb the Hannibal, a decommissioned ship that the Navy had sunk in the middle of the Bay years before for use as target practice by pilots in training.
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There is another targer ship out there now it is the American Mariner. I don't know if they still use it for bombing and machine gun practice or not but it has what look like small practice bombs all over the deck.In 1969 not long after that was placed there I went out there with a few friends and went up on the ship and we got a brass porthole and a few brass gauges. we were tied up in the west side of the ship and while we were on board several jets flew over real low,they approached from the north,the ship lies north and south,they apparently didn't see us or our boat.the jets circled aroundand again came from the north and this time they fired what I think are called a vulcan cannons that fire 6000 rounds a minute. we got off that ship as fast as we could befor they came back for another pass,luckly no one was hurt but we were sure as hell scared.
Caught hundreds of fish around that ship years ago.
The poison from all of the artillery hurt the ecosystem ever since.
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