September 8 marks the anniversary of one of the darkest days in U.S. Naval history, a disaster which happened in Santa Barbara County.
A squadron of 14 destroyers headed from the Bay Area to Southern California made a huge mistake in bad weather. Seven of the ships piled into the Santa Barbara County Coast at Honda Point, which is a few miles north of Point Conception.
"That's considered the largest naval disaster during peacetime in U.S. history," said Greg Gorga, the Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum.
He talks about the almost completely forgotten Honda Point Disaster, which happened on September 8, 1923.
"Fourteen naval vessel, all brand new destroyers, none of them more than five years old, were headed from San Francisco back to their home base in San Diego," said Gorga. "They were using dead reckoning, not trusting the radio navigation technology which was new at the time."
They wanted to go through the Santa Barbara Channel as part of an effort to break a speed record. At 9 o'clock at night, more that nine hours since they last saw land, they make a hard left. thinking they are in the Channel.
But, they were actually about ten miles north of Point Conception, at Honda Point. The stage was set for disaster.
The lead ship hit rocks, and sent out a message saying turn hard left, because they thought they had hit San Miguel Island.
Gorga says because the ships were in formation, they literally followed each other onto the rocky coastline. Seven of the destroyers hit the rocks, and sank. Two others escaped with minor damage. Only five of the original 14 destroyers escaped without hitting anything.
23 sailors died, and dozens more were injured.
Gorga says the lead ship made a fatal navigational error. This was in an era before ships had radar to aid in navigation. But, he also says the area where the accident occurred is treacherous for ships. There have been a number of shipwrecks in the area.
The scene was chaotic, as many of the sailors from the sinking ships clambered onto rocks. Because of the fog, they didn’t know that they were just a few hundred feet from shore.
There was a tiny train station nearby, on the coast. When some train crew members discovered what had happened, they sent for help, and a special train came from Lompoc with supplies.
Fishermen stepped up to help rescue stranded sailors. And, some ranchers help rig rope lines to pull the stranded sailors off the rocks to safety.
The accident led to court marshal proceedings for 14 officers. Captain Edward Watson, who commanded the squadron, took full responsible for the accident. He was commended for that, but the accident still destroyed his career.
The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum has an exhibition commemorating the Honda Point Disaster, which include photos, some artifacts, and a short video which includes an interview done with one of the last living survivors.
And, a new documentary about the overlooked part of history, called Disaster At Devil’s Jaw, will be shown at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum September 21.
"There were 127 small things that added up to one big disaster. Any one of those could have been the detour to keep it from happening," said Lee Abbott, who produced and directed the new documentary.
Honda Point is on what’s now Vandenberg Space Force Base, and is inaccessible to the public. After 100 years, the remains of the ships have rusted away above the waterline. There’s nothing visible from shore. But, parts of the destroyers still exist under the surface, as silent, lost memorials to the navy’s biggest single loss of ships during peacetime.
There’s a memorial, and plaque near the wreck’s site. There is also a propeller, and propeller shaft from one of the destroyers, the Delphy, on display outside of the Lompoc Veterans Memorial Hall.
