Devil’s Elbow Disaster
8 SEPTEMBER 1923
DEVIL’S ELBOW DISASTER
On the map of California one will notice a prominence north of Santa Barbara at which the coast takes a sharp turn to head nearly east/west for 80 miles. This prominence, bounded by Point Arguello to the north and Point Conception to the south, has been the scene of so many maritime disasters it has come to be known as the “Devil’s Elbow.” On this date 100 years ago the worst peacetime disaster in our Navy’s history piled-up on the rocks of this elbow.
Two destroyer squadrons, each consisting of eighteen destroyers in three divisions, departed San Francisco for their homeport of San Diego. Rather than make the trip routine, it was decided to use the occasion to test the durability of destroyers to sustained high-speed cruising. A competition was generated to determine which squadron could reach San Diego first with the most ships. After clearing the Golden Gate, Divisions 31, 32, and 33 of DESRON 11 sped south behind their CO, CAPT Edward H. Watson, in his flagship DELPHY (DD-261). Navigation was accomplished using the traditional plot of time, speed, and direction. The new science of radio navigation, employing the radio direction beacon installed on Point Arguello, was in its infancy, and “old salts” of that day were reluctant to trust the new-fangled electronic gizmo. At 2100, DELPHY’s skipper, LCDR Donald T. Hunter, and navigator, LT Lawrence Blodgett, calculated their position to be south of Point Conception, though radio direction plotted them two miles north. CAPT Watson was so convinced and eager to win the race, that he ordered a new course, bearing 095o. Dutifully the eighteen ships of Division 33, 31, and 32 turned in single file at 20 knots and 250-yard interval to follow the flagship.
Five minutes later, in a thick fog with engines ahead full, DELPHY drove herself onto the rocks of Honda Point. The collision knocked out DELPHY’s radio, and in rapid succession S.P. LEE (DD-310), YOUNG (DD-312), WOODBURY (DD-309), NICHOLAS (DD-311), and CHAUNCEY (DD-296) piled themselves up behind her. Two other destroyers, FARRAGUT (DD-300) and FULLER (DD-297) collided in panicked efforts to avert disaster. The only ship in Division 33 not wrecked was the last in line, THOMPSON (DD-305), whose skipper mistrusted the navigation plot and had slowed to take depth soundings. Seven ships were lost, 23 sailors killed, and 11 officers faced a court-martial. Radio navigation became the order of the day.
Honda Point, today called Destroyer Point, is part of the current Vandenberg AFB and can be visited by anyone with access to the base. One of CHAUNCEY’s anchors has been mounted to mark and memorialize the site.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 13-14 SEP 23
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Driever, Dianne. “Destroyers Down!” Naval History, Vol 6 (1), Spring 1992, pp. 20-25.
Feuer, A.B. “Disaster at Honda.” Perils of the Deep, Sea War Special Vol 1 (1), 1994, pp. 60-65, 92-93.
Feuer, A.B. “Disaster at Honda Point.” Sea Classics, Vol 47 (1), January 2014, pp. 34-38, 58-61.
Lockwood, Charles A. and Hans Christian Adamson. Tragedy at Honda. Philadelphia, PA: Chilton Company, 1960.
Site Visit, Destroyer Point, Vandenberg AFB, May 1994.
Trudeau, Noah Andre. “A Naval Tragedy’s Chain of Errors.” Naval History, Vol 24 (1), February 2010, pp. 44-52.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: In the 1920s San Diego’s harbor had not been dredged sufficiently to accommodate larger warships. San Diego became the homeport for our Pacific destroyers, while larger warships were based at San Pedro or San Francisco.
A narrow pebble beach at Destroyer Point lies at the foot of precipitous 50-foot cliffs. It was from these cliffs that high-wires were rigged to the wrecked destroyers’ superstructures to rescue the victims. When last visited by this writer, the beach at Destroyer Point was still strewn with occasional bits of scrap metal, and a boiler from one of the destroyers was visible in the surf at low tide.
