Honda Point Disaster

Honda Point Disaster

Aerial view of the disaster area, showing all seven destroyers. Photographed from a plane assigned to USS Aroostook. The ships are Nicholas and S. P. Lee at the top left. Delphy, capsized and broken in the small cove at left; Young, capsized in left center; Chauncey, upright ahead of Young; Woodbury on the rocks in the right center; and Fuller on the rocks at right.
Date	September 8, 1923
Time	21:05 local
Location	Honda (Pedernales) Point, near Lompoc, Santa Barbara County, California 34.602067°N 120.644109°W / 34.602067; -120.644109
Casualties
23 dead
Numerous injuries

The Honda Point Disaster was the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy ships. On the evening of September 8, 1923, seven destroyers, while traveling at 20 knots (37 km/h), ran aground at Honda Point, a few miles from the northern side of the Santa Barbara Channel off Point Arguello on the coast in Santa Barbara County, California. Two other ships grounded, but were able to maneuver free of the rocks. Twenty three sailors died in the disaster.

Geography of Honda Point

The area of Honda Point—Point Pedernales is extremely treacherous for central California mariners, in that it features a series of rocky outcroppings (one of which is today named Destroyer Rock) sticking out about one and a quarter miles. Called the Devil's Jaw, this area has been a navigational hazard since the Spanish explorers first came in the 16th century. This area is also near the entrance to the sometimes treacherous Santa Barbara Channel, a popular shipping shortcut for vessels going to and from the ports of southern California. The channel is 12 to 25 miles (40 km) wide between the coast and the Channel Islands. The problem with the entrance to the channel is that it is one of the windiest places for mariners to go through on the west coast. Often winds and waves are so severe that vessels will ride the storms out at the San Miguel Island's small harbor. Waves ranging up to 30 feet (9.1 m) high have frequently forced the closure of the small harbors at Santa Barbara, Ventura, Port Hueneme and Oxnard.

The entrance to the channel acts like a vortex, sucking the winds and waves of Pacific storm systems into the passage. The most dangerous area is from Point Pedernales eastward, along the stretch of south-facing coast (much of which is now part of Vandenberg Air Force Base's Western Launch and Test Range), to Gaviota Creek, where U.S. Highway 101 meets the coast from the Santa Ynez Valley. Sea vessels can be blown ashore, or with the dense fog that is common on the California coast, ships can simply run aground when they lose track of their location.

The incident

The fourteen ships of Destroyer Squadron 11 (DESRON 11) made their way south from San Francisco Bay to San Diego Bay in the late summer of 1923. The squadron was led by Commodore Edward H. Watson, on the flagship destroyer USS Delphy. All were Clemson-class destroyers, less than five years old. The ships turned east to course 095, supposedly heading into the Santa Barbara Channel, at 21:00.

The ships were navigating by dead reckoning, estimating their positions by their headings and speeds, as measured by propeller revolutions per minute. At that time radio navigation aids were new and not completely trusted. The USS Delphy was equipped with a radio navigation receiver, but her navigator and captain ignored its indicated bearings, believing them to be erroneous. No effort was made to take soundings of water depth. These operations were not performed because of the necessity to slow the ships down to take measurements. The ships were performing an exercise that simulated wartime conditions, hence the decision was made not to slow down. In this case, the dead reckoning was wrong, and the mistakes were fatal.

Earlier the same day, the mail steamship SS Cuba ran aground nearby. Some attributed these incidents in the Santa Barbara Channel to unusual currents caused by the great Tokyo earthquake of the previous week.

Ships involved

USS S. P. Lee (DD-310) prior to grounding

The lost ships were:

• USS Delphy (DD-261) was the flagship in the column. She ran aground on the shore at 20 knots (37 km/h). After running aground, she sounded her siren. The siren alerted some of the later ships in the column, helping them avoid the tragedy. Three men died. There was one civilian aboard the Delphy. Eugene Dooman, an expert on Japan with the State Department, was aboard as a guest of Captain Watson, whom he had first met in Japan.
• USS S. P. Lee (DD-310) was following a few hundred yards behind. She saw the Delphy suddenly stop, and turned to port (left) in response. She ran into the coast.
• USS Young (DD-312) made no move to turn. She tore her hull open on submerged rocks. The water rushed in, and capsized her onto her starboard (right) side within minutes. Twenty men died.
• USS Woodbury (DD-309) turned to starboard, but ran into an offshore rock.
• USS Nicholas (DD-311) turned to port and also hit a rocky outcropping.
• USS Fuller (DD-297) piled up next to the Woodbury.
• USS Chauncey (DD-296) made an attempt to rescue sailors atop the capsized Young. She ran aground nearby.

Light damage was recorded by:

• USS Farragut (DD-300) ran aground, but was able to extricate herself. She was not lost.
• USS Somers (DD-301) was lightly damaged.

The remaining five avoided the rocks:

• USS Percival (DD-298)
• USS Kennedy (DD-306)
• USS Paul Hamilton (DD-307)
• USS Stoddert (DD-302)
• USS Thompson (DD-305)

Court martial

Captain E.H. Watson, shown here as a commander, 1915

Ultimately, a Navy court ruled that the disaster was the fault of the commodore and the ship's navigators. They also assigned blame to the captain of each ship, following the tradition that a captain's first responsibility is to his own ship, even when it is part of a formation.

Honda Point today

Honda Point, also called Point Pedernales, is located on the seacoast of Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Its land has been part of the air force base for over six decades. There is a plaque and a memorial of the shipwrecks at the site. The memorial includes a ship's bell from the Chauncey, . A propeller and a propeller shaft from the Delphy is on display outside of the Veterans' Memorial Building, in the nearby town of Lompoc, California.

See also

• Point Arguello Light
• Point Conception Light

Further reading

• Anthony Preston Destroyers (1998)
• Elwyn Overshiner Course 095 To Eternity (1980)
• Charles Hice The Last Hours Of Seven Four-Stackers (1967)
• Charles A. Lockwood (RADM USN, Ret.) Tragedy At Honda (1960)

External links

• Center for Naval History's excellent multipage text overview and photo gallery
• An account of the Point Honda Disaster from a British perspective
• Haze Gray and Underway's page on the disaster