The Hudson River story dredged up crewroom banter from the 80's where someone reckoned a Herc was landed on water deliberately (during the testing phase?) with not wonderful results.
During WWII, a B-24 was ditched on purpose to prove its ability to survive such a landing.
In the Training Film based upon the Test Flight....it was noted the suggested technique would be to keep the aircraft attitude level with the water instead of the Tail Low approach as filmed.
Also....most Operational B-24's had a lot of plexiglass in the nose vice the solid nose on the Test Aircraft.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjadMxpXprk