www.soundingsonline.com

By Stephen Blakely

If you’re ever cruising the middlepart of Chesapeake Bay, just above theMaryland-Virginia state line and a bitnorthwest of Smith Island, you will seewhat appears to be an old tramp steam-er — dead in the water.

And if your binoculars are goodenough to pick out the details, you’llsee just how dead it truly is: The bullet-riddled hull shows daylight throughgaping holes at the waterline. Red rustbleeds heavily through faded andstained white paint. Parts of itssmokestacks, bridge, and other featuresare shot away or falling apart. The su-

perstructure is perforated like Swisscheese, the holes jagged and violent. Itseems a wonder the vessel is still abovewater, this far out in the bay, given itsghostly condition.

Silent, abandoned, and slowly rottinginto the sea, the bones of this rustingold hulk are exposed for a reason: It’sthe Navy’s only live-fire target ship onChesapeake Bay. Several times amonth, helicopter gun ships, fighter-bombers, and other war craft take offon training missions from the PatuxentRiver Naval Air Station about 20 milesacross the Bay, and carefully practicestrafing the ship with machine-gun fireor drilling it with rockets.

After more than 40 years of beingpounded by gunnery crews, there’s hard-ly a square foot of steel on the ship thathasn’t been hit. If the U.S. Navy is themost powerful on Earth, it’s partly be-cause its aviators learned weapons-deliv-ery precision on targets like this decayingold rust bucket in the middle of the Bay.

Two ships in oneThe target ship being used today is

actually the second that the Navy hasplaced on this spot near Smith Island.

The first, long since blasted beneaththe waves, was named Hannibal — a274-foot coal freighter built in Britain in1898 and bought by the U.S. for theNavy’s Atlantic fleet. In 1911, Hannibalwas transferred to the U.S. SurveySquadron to make depth soundings andhydrographic surveys for the openingof the Panama Canal, and, later,throughout the Caribbean.

During World War I, the ship becamea tender to submarine chasers in Eng-land, sailing to Portugal and France.After being mothballed in Philadelphiabriefly after that war, she returned tosurvey operations in the Caribbean untilWorld War II, when she was transferred

to Norfolk Naval Base for duty on thedegaussing range (to demagnetize shipsas a defense against mines, a processstill used today). Hannibal was decom-missioned in 1944, and a year latergrounded as a bombing target on a shal-low little sand bar between Point Look-out (the mouth of the Potomac River)and Smith Island. It is marked on naviga-tional charts with the half-sunken boatsymbol of an “exposed wreck,” aboutseven miles northwest of Smith Island.

The aging Hannibal lasted 21 years asa Navy target ship before it was prettymuch obliterated. In 1966, the Navybrought in a replacement ship — Amer-ican Mariner, a 442-foot World War IILiberty Ship — and carefully scuttled itnear Hannibal, pointing north. Thewater at that point is only about 20 feetdeep, roughly the ship’s draft, andAmerican Mariner settled to the bottomso little and so level that it looks like

it’s still floating.By custom and for convenience, this

“new” target is still called by the originalship’s name (the Hannibal or “the oldHannibal”). This can be confusing, since,in fact, the ship there now is actuallyAmerican Mariner, its name still visible inpeeled and faded paint on the stern.

Although built as a Liberty Ship,American Mariner never served in thewar; instead, it was fitted out as a train-ing ship for the Merchant Marine andlater used as a radar platform to trackrockets. There is a certain irony in thefact that the vessel began its life as astandard training ship (teaching cadetshow to sail a vessel), and ended its life

as a very different kind of training ship(teaching aviators how to sink one).While most of its working life wasspent chasing rockets, in death the shipis routinely hit by rockets: Navy fixed-wing aircraft out of Pax River pound itwith unguided air-to-ground Zuni mis-siles, in addition to the .50-caliber can-non fire from helicopters.

Also of note: During the early days ofthe Cold War and space race, when theUnited States was struggling to catch upto and surpass the Soviet Union in missiletechnology, American Mariner played asmall but significant role collectingradar signature data on intercontinentalballistic missiles in the Atlantic MissileRange. During this time, from the late1950s to the mid-1960s, the ship waspassed down successively to the Army,Air Force, and Navy. American Marineris said to be the only ship to have beencommissioned in all three major branch-es of the U.S. armed forces after startingservice for the Merchant Marine.

Navy officials say American Marineris expected to last many more years,but when there’s no longer enoughmetal to shoot at they will bring outyet another target ship, probably fromthe “Ghost Fleet” of mothballed ves-sels in the James River near Norfolk. Abook about the ship, “AmericanMariner: A Documentary Biography ofHer Role As Liberty Ship, TrainingShip,” is out of print, but still available

Soundings May 2008 Home Waters 17

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The rusting, bullet-pocked carcass of the

former training ship American Mariner

sits on the shallow bottom of the mid-

Chesapeake, awaiting the next attack.

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www.soundingsonline.com

(Herbert Hahn, American MerchantMarine Museum, 1990).

The prohibited zonesA glance at a navigational chart shows

that the Hannibal target is just one ofseveral circles that appear in the mid-Bay area between the Patuxent River tothe north and Tangier Island to thesouth. These are “prohibited zones” —1,000-yard-wide exclusion circlesaround Navy targets or testing markers.That means they are off-limits at alltimes to recreational boaters, for seem-ingly obvious safety reasons.

But “seemingly obvious” has neverapplied to the sometimes obliviousboaters who can be found in any wa-ters. Occasionally before the start oflive-fire exercises, Navy range safetycrews have had to chase away anglerswho raft onto Hannibal to catch fish. Inone instance in the 1990s, they foundtwo young men had actually climbedonto the wreck itself — literally insidethe bulls-eye of a target about to be

sprayed by automatic cannon fire. Since the Navy’s top priority is ensur-

ing safety and maintaining good rela-tions with boaters in the area, the tres-passers were merely scolded and notarrested. “They were given a rebuke.What we’re really concerned about ispeoples’ safety,” said Mike Johnston, as-sistant director for Atlantic Test Rangesat Patuxent River NAS. “Obviously, theship’s in pretty bad shape — lots ofrust, holes, jagged edges, we can’t guar-antee the deck won’t fall in. We wantto keep them off for their own safety.

Far more common is the routine ofasking boaters and watermen in thevicinity to leave before a weapons opera-tion begins. “We know fishermen like tofish in these areas. If the range is operat-ing and the area is going to be hot, wesend the range safety boats or heli-copters down and clear the area,” John-ston said. “Our range safety officers havea very good relationship with the boatingpublic and get very good cooperation.”

He added: “We never drop any ord-

nance without complete verificationthat no one’s there.”

How the area is usedIn the technical, bloodless jargon of

the Navy, the military training exercisesin the mid-Bay involve “weapons/storesseparation testing” associated with air-craft-related research, development, andevaluation. This means operations “to as-sess the ability of a store to safely and re-liably separate (be released) from an air-craft” — in other words, firing rocketsor machine-gun shells at the Hannibaltarget, dropping practice bombs (TheHooper Island target cluster about 6.5miles south-southeast of Cedar Point anddue west of Hooper Straight, see accom-panying “Steer clear” story), and usingdecoys in conducting electronic warfaretests or exercises in the vicinity of theHooper target.

These targets provide “safe, con-trolled locations where weapons/storesseparation testing or air-to-surface firingcan be conducted,” the Navy says. Toavoid the risk of unexploded warheadslittering the bottom the Bay, the Navyno longer uses explosive ordnance inthese tests; instead, the missiles orbombs are fitted with “inert” (dummy)warheads that cannot explode.

Navy officials say about 12 bombingor strafing operations per month areconducted at the Chesapeake targets,with the typical operation lasting twoto three hours. About 75 percent of theoperations occur at or around theHooper target, with the remaining 25percent at the Hannibal target. About85 percent of the Hooper operationsare said to remain within the bounds ofthe circular prohibited area.

About an hour before starting any ex-ercises, the Navy conducts a series ofrange clearance procedures to evacuatethe area, by doing visual or radar sweeps

of the area, using chase aircraft, and(most commonly) sending range boatsdown to clear the target areas. Recre-ational boaters, fishermen, or watermenare requested to exit the restricted areasvia radio, signs, hand signals, or otherappropriate methods. Helicoptersequipped with loudspeakers are some-times used. Should individuals refuse toleave the area, the Coast Guard can becalled in to take them out of the area.

As an additional safety measure, thetest pilot flies over a target to perform avisual check to make sure the target isclear before shooting begins. All in-volved Pax River NAS parties (rangeclearance boats, Chesapeake TestRange flight controllers, range control

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Steer clearThese are the prohibited areas with-

in the mid-Bay area, starting at themouth of the Patuxent River to thenorth and going south:

Hooper Island target cluster, about6.5 miles south-southeast of CedarPoint and due west of Hooper Straight,about three miles off the western shore.This includes various pilings used byelectronic targeting systems as well asa “sacrificial” bombing platform built onpilings, about 15 feet high, used as atarget for dummy bombs. The platformis rebuilt as needed.

Bloodsworth Island, about 17 milessoutheast of Cedar Point. This rangeonce was used by Navy surface ships(such as destroyers) for testing theirdeck guns by shelling the island’swestern beach. Although live-fire exer-cises are no longer conducted there,the area contains unexploded shellsand the entire island is off-limits.

American Mariner (a.k.a. Hannibal),seven miles northwest of the westernchannel to Smith Island.

Tangier Island target, about fourmiles southwest of the western chan-nel to Tangier Island, used for videoand electronic calibration of onboardweapons systems in the Navy aircraft.Since these pilings are barely abovewater, and two other submergedwrecks are just two miles off the west-ern channel, boaters should pay closeattention to their charts in this area.

Wreck of the San Marcos, aboutnine miles west-southwest of TangierIsland. Originally built in 1895 as thebattleship USS Texas, the ship was re-named the San Marcos in 1911, con-verted to a target ship, and sunk laterthat year off Tangier Island by shellingfrom other Navy warships. Over theyears, the submerged wreckage of theSan Carlos snagged and sank severalprivate boats, so the Navy set off un-derwater demolition charges to lowerthe rubble (providing at least 20 feet ofclearance at low tide) and lessen therisk of collisions. It remains a popularfishing area, although local watermenhave occasionally hauled up unex-ploded bombs in the area.

The target ship (yellow circle, left) sits seven miles northwest of Smith Island.

continued on Page 21

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engineers, control tower staff, andother range safety personnel) arelinked together by radio. Commercialships in “established steamer lanes” arenot required to halt and wait for theexercise to be completed.

(Almost) in the line of fireA few years ago I had the opportuni-

ty to witness these procedures first-hand, when a couple of friends and Iwere sailing down the Bay to Smith Is-land in my 26-foot Island Packetnamed Bearboat.

Just as we were clearing AmericanMariner perhaps two miles away, wenoticed a powerboat on the southernhorizon with a flashing red light. SinceI usually sail with my “ears” on (a hand-held VHF radio at the helm), I heardthe range boat’s hail on the first call.

“Navy range boat to white sailboatwest of Smith Island, come in whitesailboat. Over,” the voice said.

“White sailboat to Navy range boat,over,” I replied.

“U.S. Navy firing exercises are aboutto begin on the target ship you arepassing to port. Request you changecourse due east and exit the area im-mediately. Over,” he said.

“Roger, changing course due east,” Ianswered, surprised at the news.“When does the firing begin? Over.”

To which came the reply, “The heli-copter just left base at Pax River and isen route now.”

As I nudged up the throttle, the Navyrange boat came back on the air tothank us for having our radio on — ap-parently a rare occurrence — as itsaved them the time and trouble ofcoming over several miles to chase usoff. The helicopter, when it arrived, pa-tiently circled the area for almost anhour until we were just entering thewestern channel to Smith Island andout of sight of the target ship; only thendid we begin to hear the dull, rapid, far-off thunder of automatic cannon fire.

Staying out of troubleAs unusual as the target ship is, and

as interesting as the Navy operationsmay be, boaters in the mid-Chesapeakeshould be aware of these military facili-ties, where they are, and how to avoidthem. These are not amusement parks— to state what should be obvious —and deserve to be treated with caution.

Navy officials say it’s a simple matterto stay out of trouble in this area: Lookat your charts to see where the prohib-ited zones are. Do not enter them.

Keep your radio on and keep an eyeout for Navy range boats — those wouldbe the ones that are painted orange,with flashing red lights, and have “RangeBoat” written in big letters on the side.

And if they invite you to leave thearea, take the hint and go. n

Stephen Blakely is an editor andfreelance writer in Washington, D.C.He also writes a sailing blog, www.travelbeat.net/sailing

Soundings May 2008 Home Waters 21

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American Mariner in her glory, under way as a radar tracking vessel, and as a liberty ship in drydock for painting in Baltimore.

TARGET from Page 18