Subdeacon Joe Posted December 6, 2014 Posted December 6, 2014 I was looking up the USS Corry (DD-334) for information on flush deck destroyers, and ran across this:http://www.hazegray.org/features/honda/ On 8 September 1923 the US Navy lost one and a half destroyer divisions -- seven ships -- in a mass grounding at Honda Point, California. This peacetime disaster had few equals at the time, and still remains one of the worst such disasters in US Navy history. On the night of 8 September, the ships of Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 11 were on a 24 hour run from San Francisco to San Diego, cruising at 20 knots. The flagship, USS Delphy (DD 261) was in the lead, followed by Destroyer Divisions 33, 31 and 32; ships as follows: DesDiv 33: S. P. Lee (DD 310), Young (DD 312), Woodbury (DD 309), Nicholas (DD 311) DesDiv 31: Farragut (DD 300), Fuller (DD 297), Percival (DD 298), Somers (DD 301), Chauncey (DD 296) DesDiv 32: Kennedy (DD 306), Paul Hamilton (DD 307), Stoddert (DD 302), Thompson (DD 305)The ships turned east, supposedly into the Santa Barbara Channel, at 2100 hours. In reality the ships had were headed for the rocky shore due to navigational errors and unusual currents caused by the Tokyo earthquake of the previous week. The ships soon entered a thick fogbank, each vessel following the wake of the ship ahead. 5 minutes after the turn, Delphy ran ashore at 20 knots, quickly followed by other members of the squadron. S. P. Lee went ashore broadside to the shoreline cliffs to the north of Delphy. Nicholas stuck on a reef to seaward of S. P. Lee. Young came ashore aft of Delphy, and was quickly rolled onto her side by the flagship's propeller wash. Woodbury wrecked on a group of rocks offshore, and Fuller was wrecked on the rocks just beyond Woodbury. Lastly, Chauncey grounded inshore of the capsized Young. Somers and Farragut were warned by Delphy's siren and they slowed considerably before coming ashore; both were able to back off without major damage. The other ships of the squadron avoided grounding completely. The ships came to rest in two groups: a main group with Fuller, Woodbury, Young, Chauncey and Delphy roughly in a line, and S. P. Lee & Nicholas together to the north of the other ships. In the aftermath of the grounding Delpy capsized and Nicholas' bow broke off.
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted December 6, 2014 Posted December 6, 2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Point_Disaster http://www.pointhondamemorial.org/ http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/honda.htm http://www.cawreckdivers.org/wrecks/honda.htm
Subdeacon Joe Posted December 6, 2014 Author Posted December 6, 2014 No link No pics Casualties? Hmm....sent a link to my wife and she saw them on her computer. Give it another try, Bob. But... 23 dead, lots of injuries.
Utah Bob #35998 Posted December 6, 2014 Posted December 6, 2014 Moon phase must have been off. Probably this tablet I'm using.
Subdeacon Joe Posted December 6, 2014 Author Posted December 6, 2014 Probably this tablet I'm using. Sure it wasn't the shot glass?
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