I wouldn't have wanted to carry that unwelcome guest home either. I would have dumped it in the sea if I had to (just like that nuke that was dropped a few miles offshore of Savannah - it hasn't bothered anybody and has been there for years - periodically the environmentalists raise a stink, but since nobody knows where it is now and it's probably sunk deep in the mud, nobody can do anything about it.)
You’re absolutely correct about the topography. I’m not sure that jettisoning the bomb at sea would have been as ‘safe’ relatively speaking as later “broken arrows”.
The Savannah bomb was the result of a collision between a bomber & a SAC fighter (they had escort fighters back then, though I don’t think the planes were operating on the same mission). It’s DEEP in the mud of the Savannah river estuary.