Point Judith

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Satellite photograph of Point Judith, Rhode Island

Point Judith is a village and a small cape, on the coast of Rhode Island, on the western side of Narragansett Bay where it opens out onto Rhode Island Sound.

Point Judith is the site of the last sinking of an Allied ship in the Atlantic Ocean during WWII. On May 5, 1945, at 5:40PM, the U-853 torpedoed the collier, S.S. Black Point ( http://www.usmm.org/blackpoint.html ), enroute to Boston, She was within sight of the US Coast Guard lighthouse station at Point Judith. The lookout at the lighthouse was just preparing to enter the sighting in his logbook when he heard the sound of the torpedo exploding as it hit the ship. The Black Point sank within 25 minutes. 12 lives were lost among her civilian crew and the US Navy anti-aircraft crew aboard her, while 34 members of her crews were rescued. The resulting US Navy and US Coast Guard hunt for the U-853 is now often referred to as the *Battle of Point Judith* : ( http://www.desausa.org/de_photo_library/battle_of_point_judith.htm ). US Navy destroyers, destroyer escorts, and US Coast Guard cutters converged on the waters off Point Judith. Attacks with depth charges and hedgehogs (hedgehog (weapon)) continued until the U-853's destruction was confirmed the next morning. U-853 may have been the last U-boat to sink a ship during WWII, but she also became the last one to be sunk. Her wreck lies in 135 feet of water and is a popular, but dangerous (at least three divers have died), destination for sport divers.

It is the location for the principal year-round ferry service that connects Block Island to the mainland.

Jandek has a song of the same name.

How Point Judith got its name; from notes found in the 1854 genealogy of the Greenleaf family. Note 98, pg. 110. In the mid 1600's Judith Thatcher was aboard a small vessel with her father when it ran aground on the point and was almost wrecked. It records that she rendered great service and as a result the vessel was saved. In remembrance of this the crew called the point after her name.

During the American Revolution, the British controlled Narragansett Bay and raided the farms on Point Judith and the surrounding areas in the late 1770s under Captain Wallace.[1]