1950年的战舰，泥土，高潮，哈德逊河渡轮，T恤和不明飞行物的共同点是什么？

To find out how they interconnect, let’s start with the Battleship USS MISSOURI (BB-63). In 1950, the ship was already famous for her participation in WWII, and because the surrender that ended the war was signed on her deck. MISSOURI was nicknamed the “Mighty Mo” by her crew, but she was also known as the “Big Mo” to the public and in news reports. She would soon live up to them both names when she managed to get into a mighty big mess.

这一切开始于1950年1月17日. MISSOURI left Norfolk Naval Base and headed towards the Atlantic Ocean to begin a routine training cruise to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Her Captain, William D. Brown, was new to the battleship, having just joined the crew in December. While he was an experienced naval officer, his previous commands had been submarines and destroyers and he had been on shore duty since the end of World War II. Although Captain Brown had taken MISSOURI on a few short trips off the coast of Virginia after he took command, he was essentially unfamiliar with the battleship and this would be his first time taking her out for a cruise.

海军已经建立了一个声学范围，以捕捉船只发出的标志性声音，并靠近密苏里州的出发点。布朗船长被要求在出门的路上进行以前计划外的旅行，并被告知浮标已被设立以纪念该地区。这很重要，因为该范围非常接近浅水。

Things started to go wrong pretty quickly. It turned out that some of the buoys had been removed and the navigational charts hadn’t been updated with that information. Not all the ship’s officers knew about the plan to take MISSOURI through the range, and some of them only heard about it just before the battleship headed in that direction. Another complication was that the range area was close to a fishing channel that was also marked with buoys.

布朗发现了他认为是声学范围右边缘的标记，并命令浮标左侧的战舰。他忽略了导航员和执行官试图提醒他的警告，直到太晚才意识到他犯了一个错误才意识到。即使那天潮水异常高，密苏里州仍在进入捕鱼通道和浅水。

上午8:17，“ Mighty Mo”击中了切萨皮克湾的沙仓，距离顶针浅滩一英里半，距离旧点的舒适度只有一英里。战舰以12.5节的速度行驶，将2500英尺的水犁入沙洲，向下降下船，将她从水线上方约7英尺处抬出水。
现在，这艘船被困在门罗堡的陆军基地附近，靠近顶针浅滩灯塔，运输频道，并在海军基地看到。

几天之内，全国各地的报纸就会开始出现“强大的Mo”或“ Big Mo”的扎根。随后，这些文章迅速发生了有关在接下来的两周内释放战舰的多次失败尝试的报道。不仅使旁观者和读者带来娱乐，而且给海军带来了很多屈辱。陆军人员发现整个情况很有趣，发现了一种新的爱好。在撰写信件和撰写电报的同时，参与了门罗堡官员俱乐部的设施，其中包含有关如何释放战舰的建议。公众也参与其中并发送了建议。海军被淹没了想法，其中包括印第安纳州一个五岁男孩的一个想法，他们告诉他们他们只需要修理船的底部，以便她再次漂浮。

After numerous failed attempts using a large number of tugboats, military vessels, small explosive charges, dredging, large cables, and other methods, MISSOURI was finally refloated on February 1, 1950, during another unusually high tide. Even after the ship was freed, the jokes continued. For most of 1950, anytime an accident involved a large amount of mud, the nickname “Mo” surfaced again. A situation was a “Big Mo,” like a plane that slid off an icy runway into the mud. A car that imitated the “Big Mo” or two boats that went aground in mud off New Jersey on the same day and the efforts to free them was named “Operation Big Mo”.

因此，现在直到1950年4月，渡轮和纽约哈德逊河上的一个点。在那里，两个城市在河上彼此之间。纽堡（Newburgh），位于奥兰治县（Orange County），只有一个半英里的灯塔，在荷兰县（Dutchess County）。这两个城市距纽约都会区约55英里。Newburgh-Beacon渡轮系统为这两个城市提供了三个通勤渡轮，名为Orange，Dutchess和Beacon。通常，三艘船中有两艘同时服役，每艘船都停泊在河的另一侧，他们在跑步时在中间彼此越过。一天的第一场比赛开始于上午7点左右，大约需要15分钟才到达河的另一侧。Read more