ML – Over the Del-Jersey-Land Reef – WGMD Throwback Thursday Picture of the Day – to August 10, 2011 and the sinking of the USS Radford. The USS Radford was decommissioned in 2003 and was sunk to become part of the Del-Jersey-Land artificial reef. The artificial reef lies equal distance from Cape May, NJ, Ocean City, MD and Indian River Inlet, DE. Many who served on the Radford during its 26 year history were aboard a Cape May-Lewes Ferry that was chartered by the states and left from Lewes to watch the historic sinking. (WGMD’s Mari Lou was on the ferry for the sinking – along with Captain Bill and Kathy Baker) The USS Radford, at 563 feet long, is the longest vessel ever sunk for an artificial reef in the Atlantic. The holes that had been cut in the ship’s hull ended up too high off the water and we spent hours on the ferry going back and forth while the holes were enlarged and the Radford eventually began to take on water. However once it started to go down – it disappeared below the surface within 90 seconds. Watch the video of the sinking – https://youtu.be/vJGYMJWH6ss
