V1 was traveling southeast at the east entrance to Mill Cove.  V1 struck a submerged dredge pipe.  Transom and engine cowling were damaged.

On 5-14-1969 I Officer of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission received a phone call. He stated to me that he just struck a dredge pipe and damaged his boat at the east entrance to  Mill Cove near the mouth of the Harbors North channel and stated that another boater gave him my phone number and suggested for him to call me to find out what his legal responsibility's were.  He was also concerned that the dredge pipe might be improperly marked.  I went to the scene and conducted a boating accident investigation.  When I arrived on scene I observed large cracks on either side of the upper portion of the transom of vessel  FL5377MZ .  There was a dark colored plastic transfer on the leading front edge of the motor where the motor impacted the plastic dredge pipe.  The front side of the Yamaha Cowling was cracked where the motor tilted on impact and struck the vessel's leading edge on the splash well.  There were also several thick chunks of fiberglass inside the bilge that came from the inside of the transom and vessel cap.  I photographed the vessels damage.

During the time of the accident and the time I arrived on scene we had severe weather conditions.  There was heavy downpour rains, winds were gusting in excess of 25 mph and visibility was low.  A small craft advisory was in effect as well as a flash flood warning.  operator was operating the vessel and stated that he believed they struck a submerged dredge pipe. He said they were headed south into Mill Cove when they struck the pipe.   operator provided me with a sworn written statement. 

There were several markers in a straight row marking the dredge pipe. There were 2 orange connecting floating barrels with a sign that stated "DANGER FLOATING PIPE LINE NO WAKE"  and 2 blue barrels  also with a sign attached.  There were also several floating balls, some were red and some were blue.  There was also several informational regulatory markers.  The tide was extremely high and the waves were crashing over the signs.  There were lights over the signs but they were not illuminated.  Conditions were such that navigational lights were required to be turned on due to the rain and low visibility.
JACKSONVILLE