# USCG rescues sailor SW of Tanger Island, Va



## aa3jy (Jul 23, 2006)

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCG/bulletins/19e3c73?reqfrom=share


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## Barquito (Dec 5, 2007)

"arranged for commercial salvage"? I would have guessed the boat would be on the bottom, in water too deep to recover.


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## Jeff_H (Feb 26, 2000)

I would speculate that the boat sank in shallow water or was hard aground since that is pretty shallow water.


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## hpeer (May 14, 2005)

10 mi SW of Tangier in very roughly 35 - 45 feet.

No obstructions shown on Active Captain. My first thought was the old target ships, but the are only about 2 NM SW. Unless it was the USS Texas sunk by Billy Mitchel. That's sort of in the neighborhood but is supposed to have at least 11' depth over it.


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## RichH (Jul 10, 2000)

He could have hit a piece of the Old Texas. About 6-7 nMi. SW of Tangier Is. is the remnants of the old Texas (used as a bombing target by Gen. Billy Mitchell prior to WWII), and still noted as 'shifting steel' on some charts.
He's probably in 30 ft. 10 nMi SW of Tangier the water drops from about 30 to 50 ft. deep. to ~80 ft. at the shipping channel area.


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

I'm thinking he smacked some of the ribs to the either the Texas or one of the other half dozen strafing target ships in that area. All are situated east of the main channel, but they are very close to the channel edge. The Davidson Wreck, which I fished regularly, was visible until about 15 years ago when the Navy strafed it to just a few feet beneath the surface. Those ships ribs could very easily sink any boat that hits them, even if you were just drifting over the wreck and dropped off of a small wave. 

The Tanger Wreck, which is the closest to Tangier Island, was also another partly submerged wreck, about 4 miles from the island, in about 18 feet of water. It too is now completely underwater, but the ribs are only a few inches from the surface. 

The only target ship that remains above water is the American Mariner, which sits in 18 feet of water about 4 miles east of the channel edge off east of Point No Point. It resembles a piece of Swiss cheese and has thousands of holes in it. There were never any explosive rounds used to shoot this ship, but the others were shot with HE rocket rounds, which destroyed everything above the water line. Some were even bombed. Just a few yards west of the American Mariner is the Old Hannibal, which is just 4 feet beneath the surface. You would be amazed at the number of boats I see drifting over this wreck while those onboard are shooting photos of the American Mariner. They are completely oblivious to the danger lurking just beneath their hull, chunks of sharp steel that could sink them in a matter of minutes.

Again, this is where local knowledge is critical. Most folks just look at the paper charts or GPS charts, see something that says obstruction and never give it a second thought because of the water depth or it's proximity to land. In the case of the Texas and Davidson wrecks, neither are close to land, both are in relatively deep water and just outside the channel so most folks consider them nothing to worry about. Obviously, this is not the case. Commercial netters avoid these locations like the plague because it fouls their expensive gill nets. The structures, however, provide great underwater habitat for a host of finfish species, weakfish, spotted seatrout, croaker, tautog, swelling toadfish, and others. I used to fish there a lot for swelling toadfish, which way back when were known as Chicken Of The Sea in the local seafood markets.

Another wreck I thought of would be the San Marcos, which would be pretty much where the USCG claimed the boat sank. The San Marcos was another target ship that was completely destroyed by bombs, rockets and HE rounds that leveled it to to just a few feet beneath the surface back in the 1980s. Most of the debris is 10 feet beneath the surface, but a few ribs are just a few inches under the surface at low tide.

Gary


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## hpeer (May 14, 2005)

Gaveling,

That's interesting because I checked the AC obstructions for the area and only saw the Texas near 10 miles SW of Tangier. From you description I understand there are more obstructions than shown on ActivenCaptain?

By the by, there is an old light platform in the Delaware. The light is gone but the platform remains. It's in three feet of charted water but with over 6' of tide I can see some power boat cutting across there at night. And my Navionics declutters it above some resolution, maybe 3 miles? I could see someone hitting it running at night or in poor biz.


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## SVAuspicious (Oct 31, 2006)

Soft spot in my heart for the RBM 45.


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## ggray (Jun 18, 2011)

The San Marcos IS the Texas


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

Actually, the San Marcos and Texas are two separate wrecks at the same site. I think the site was named San Marcos, though, but not really sure. Same with the Old Hannibal and the American Mariner - two wrecks at the same site, at least that's what the locals tell me. When I fished there, most everything was already beneath the surface, so I had no way of telling. Back then, when the Navy wanted to strafe the target, they would swoop down on you to an altitude of about 50 feet, wobble their wings as they roared overhead, then climb vertically and return. You got the hint to get the Hell out of there real fast. Usually, within 10 minutes of leaving, they were firing rockets at the target. It got your undivided attention. Somewhere in my archives, I have some photos of all those target ships before they were completely destroyed. I like fishing the Davidson Wreck best, mainly because it held some of the bay's largest weakfish, some to 15 pounds, and lots of swelling toads to about 10 inches. 

When the Navy became a bit more sophisticated and there was an outcry from the tree huggers about the explosives killing fish, they went with a reflective IR target system that was installed just south of the Patuxent River's mouth near the Patuxent Naval Air Station. It is known as The Targets on your charts. Been buzzed there, too. 

All the best,

Gary


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## ggray (Jun 18, 2011)

With all due respect, they are the same ship.

The (first) USS Texas was obsolete by the time she was built. The name was changed to San Marcos to allow the name Texas to be used on a newer battleship.

Soon after, the San Marcos became a target ship, and sunk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Texas_(1892)



travlin-easy said:


> Actually, the San Marcos and Texas are two separate wrecks at the same site. I think the site was named San Marcos, though, but not really sure. Same with the Old Hannibal and the American Mariner - two wrecks at the same site, at least that's what the locals tell me. When I fished there, most everything was already beneath the surface, so I had no way of telling. Back then, when the Navy wanted to strafe the target, they would swoop down on you to an altitude of about 50 feet, wobble their wings as they roared overhead, then climb vertically and return. You got the hint to get the Hell out of there real fast. Usually, within 10 minutes of leaving, they were firing rockets at the target. It got your undivided attention. Somewhere in my archives, I have some photos of all those target ships before they were completely destroyed. I like fishing the Davidson Wreck best, mainly because it held some of the bay's largest weakfish, some to 15 pounds, and lots of swelling toads to about 10 inches.
> 
> When the Navy became a bit more sophisticated and there was an outcry from the tree huggers about the explosives killing fish, they went with a reflective IR target system that was installed just south of the Patuxent River's mouth near the Patuxent Naval Air Station. It is known as The Targets on your charts. Been buzzed there, too.
> 
> ...


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## ggray (Jun 18, 2011)

I'm not sure why that link is broken. But you can use it to follow a trail to a site that describes what I have abbreviated.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Texas_(1892)


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## travlin-easy (Dec 24, 2010)

Neat stuff, didn't know that. But, I'm really old and I don't remember everything as well as I should. Hey, at least I remembered the wrecks. Fond memories of the great fishing they offered. 

As for the Texas, I never thought that wreck was the size of a battleship. Maybe that is why I thought there were two wrecks there, because of the size. Most of the target ships were troop transport ships and liberty ships - not something the size of a battleship. I remember the ribs were just above the water line the first time I fished there, but within a few years strafing had all but destroyed everything above the water. The Navy also had a submerged platform there as well, which they shot and bombed. It was similar to those I saw near the Marquesses Keys in Florida. 

All the best,

Gary


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## ggray (Jun 18, 2011)

Yes, I'm getting old too. 

My problem is that most of what I remember is irrelevant stuff like this.

More of it, if you are still awake, that also has a connection to this wreckage in the Chesapeake, is that the boiler for the San Marcos (as well as some other equipment) was fabricated in Richmond VA. Being too high on the railcar to fit through the Church Hill Tunnel, it had to be slid down the tracks on a skid and then loaded. So that boiler is on the bottom of the Chesapeake.

Some years later that tunnel (I think it was the first such tunnel through dirt rather than rock) collapsed entombing a steam locomotive and several cars (and killing several men) that are still there to this day.

Sorry for the thread drift.


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