The Thunderbolt Yacht Basin, at 3124 River Drive on the bluff of the Wilmington River, opened in 1939 for the yacht racing then popular around Savannah, and in 1942 the Army Air Forces at Hunter Field took it over as a rescue boat station. It was home to the boats of Operations Platoon No. 9 of the 922nd Quartermaster Company Boat, Aviation, which stood by for aircrews whose planes came down in the water during over-water bombing and gunnery training. They were "P" crash rescue boats, a type adapted from yacht designs that ran from 63 to 104 feet and carried a small crew, a sick bay for injured aviators and an anti-aircraft gun.
The basin was built on the site of Fort Thunderbolt, the Confederate battery that guarded the river approach to Savannah from Whitemarsh Island. Companies of the 63rd Georgia Infantry served there as infantry and heavy artillery in 1863, and nothing of the fort survives. The Georgia Historical Society marker on the site says the point had been used for defensive works since at least the 1700s.
The rescue station later became part of the Third Air Force Staging Wing at Hunter Field and stayed a military installation until the mid-1950s. Civilian marine work returned in the 1960s. The marker was erected in 2017 by the Georgia Historical Society, the Town of Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt Marine Inc. Bill Palmer, son of Staff Sergeant William J. Palmer, who had served at the station, was named among the speakers for its March dedication.
Getting there
32.0222, -81.0466
Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.
Hear it from the road
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