This is the second in a series.

In July 1925, Capt. Curtis Hilton of the J.M. Hilton encountered dense fog off the Jersey coast. The captain decided to wait out the weather and anchored his ship close to the Barnegat Lighthouse in shallow water.

Leaving a lookout on deck, the captain and crew retired below only to be awakened by a ringing bell and the lookout calling them to come up to the deck. Hilton later told the press, “It must have been three or four minutes after that call when we were hit.