The H. Lee White Maritime Museum at Oswego is pleased to present the second installment of its 2023 History Lecture Series featuring Tom Wilber, author of Vanishing Point: The Search for a B-24 Bomber Crew Lost on the World War II Home on Sunday, June 4 from  2 to 4 p.m. 

Award winning journalist and author Tom Wilber will piece together the largely forgotten story of the bomber Getaway Gertie, and the eclectic group of enthusiasts who have spent years searching for it in the depths of Lake Ontario.  The B-24 Liberator vanished with its crew while on a training mission over upstate New York on February 18, 1944.  Parts of the plane washed ashore near Oswego, but neither the plane nor crew were ever located giving rise to local myth and legend.  Wilber’s Vanishing Point, scheduled for release mid-May 2023, combines such myth with historical fact, painting a portrait of sacrifice on the World War II American home front.

“With the upcoming designation of a new National Marine Sanctuary on Lake Ontario highlighting the history and heritage of such submerged cultural resources, there couldn’t be a better time to bring the story of Getaway Gertie to the public’s attention”, said Mercedes Niess, executive director of the H. Lee White Maritime Museum.  Copies of Vanishing Point will be available for purchase at the lecture and book signing event courtesy of the river’s end bookstore of Oswego.

The Maritime Museum, home of the National Historic Landmark WWII tugboat LT-5 will also be celebrating International Museum Ship Weekend on June 3-4.  Join us as we welcome Fred Legawiec of the amateur radio station W2LGA, as he contacts many other military ships all over the world both days 9am to 4pm. 

The H. Lee White Maritime Museum’s History Lecture Series is a free program, open to the public.  The Maritime Museum and Treasure Chest Gift Shop are open daily, 1 to 5 p.m. (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in July and August) and are located on the West First Street Pier in Oswego’s Historic Maritime District.  For more information regarding this or other Museum programs, contact the Museum at 315-342-0480, or visit hlwmm.org.