World War II Rescue Boat Station

World War II Rescue Boat Station is a Georgia historical marker in Thunderbolt., Chatham County, dedicated 2017.

Located at 3124 River Drive, Thunderbolt.

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The Thunderbolt Yacht Basin opened here in 1939 to service marine vessels. It was built on the site of the Civil War-era Ft. Thunderbolt on a point used for defensive fortifications since at least the eighteenth century. In 1942, during World War II, the US Army Air Forces stationed at Hunter Field acquired the Yacht Basin for use as a Rescue Boat Station to support bombing and gunnery training conducted over water. The Rescue Boat Station housed the "P" crash rescue boats of Operations Platoon No. 9 of the 922nd Quartermaster Company Boat (Aviation), which provided emergency response for downed aircraft. The facility became part of the Third Air Force Staging Wing at Hunter Field and continued as a military installation until the mid-1950s. Since the 1960s the site has been used for civilian marine services.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection

Historical maps covering this location

1874 · Plache VII. Sea Islands. (Carolina du Sud). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1942 · Savannah, South Carolina (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1955 · Sanborn Fire Insurance Map — Savannah, Ga. (1955) (OldInsuranceMaps.net — Sanborn Map Collection)
1955 · Savannah, Georgia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1978 · Savannah, Georgia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Savannah, South Carolina, 1942, covering the location of World War II Rescue Boat Station, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Savannah, South Carolina, 1942, covering this location. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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This historical marker is part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program and was erected by the Georgia Historical Society. Marker texts and locations come from the Society's own marker database.

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