Return to Naval Historical
Center home page.
Return
to Online Library listing
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- EVENTS -- The 1920s -- 1923
Honda Point Disaster, 8 September 1923 --
Later Views of the Wrecks
When the special train took hundreds of survivors from Honda
Station on the afternoon of 9 September 1923, eighteen Navy men
were left behind as a "Wreck Patrol", assigned to protect
the seven stranded destroyers from looters, watch for the bodies
of the dead and recover them if possible. Ultimately, seventeen
bodies were found. Another six had been swept out to sea or were
otherwise unaccounted for.
Though the ships themselves were damaged beyond recovery, serious
efforts to salvage their weapons and equipment were quickly undertaken.
Saved materiel included torpedoes, many of the ships' torpedo
tubes and guns, radios, documents and whatever else was worth
the effort. Some guns and other heavy items had to be left behind,
particularly on the wrecks furthest from the mainland, where recovery
was simply too dangerous.
A special Court of Inquiry investigated the loss of twenty-three
irreplaceable lives and seven expensive destroyers. A subsequent
Court Martial adjudicated the issue of blame and punishment.
Squadron Commander Edward
H. Watson and the Commanding officers of Delphy and
Nicholas were found guilty, though the latter's conviction
was set aside by the reviewing Admiral.
Other "tin-cans", from the vast surplus of destroyers
built under the World War I building program, soon replaced the
lost ships in the operating forces. Heavy waves rolling in against
the California coast began to break apart the fragile hulls of
the seven wrecks within weeks of the Honda Point disaster. By
the end of 1924, every one of these once-valuable fighting ships
had been reduced to scattered components, few of them recognizable
to any but the most knowledgeable eye.
This page features, or provides links to, all the views
we have of wrecked destroyers at Honda Point, California, during
the months and years following their loss.
For other pictures of the Honda Point wrecks, showing them
after they had been broken up by the surf, see:
Honda Point Disaster, 8 September
1923 -- Later Views of the Wrecks (Part II); and
Honda Point Disaster, 8 September
1923 -- Later Views of the Wrecks (Part III).
For more images related to the September 1923 Honda Point
Disaster, see:
Honda Point Disaster, 8 September
1923.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
The views presented immediately below were taken during
the weeks just after the ship strandings, while efforts were underway
to salvage equipment from the wrecked ships, and as waves were
beginning the process of breaking them apart:
Photo #: NH 97982
Honda Point Disaster, September 1923
Wreck of USS Chauncey (DD-296) near shore, during salvage
operations some time after 8 September 1923, when she went aground
on Honda Point with six other destroyers. Sheer legs are rigged
atop her galley deckhouse to assist in removing items from the
ship. Her midships 4"/50 guns have already been sent ashore.
The wreck of USS Woodbury (DD-309) is in the middle distance.
Photographed by Sever.
Collection of Lieutenant Kelly Green.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 460pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 97984
Honda Point Disaster, September 1923
Wreck of USS S.P. Lee (DD-310) stranded near shore at
Honda Point, with the wreck of USS Nicholas (DD-311) in
the left background. Photographed some time after 8 September
1923, when both ships went aground with five other destroyers
during a foggy night.
By the time this photo was taken Nicholas' bow had broken
away from the rest of her hull.
Donation of Captain Edward L. Beach, USN (Retired), 1988.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 88KB; 740 x 535 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 97985
Honda Point Disaster, September 1923
USS S.P. Lee (DD-310) and USS Nicholas (DD-311)
wrecked at Honda Point. Photographed some time after 8 September
1923, when both ships went aground with five other destroyers
during a foggy night.
By the time this photo was taken Nicholas' bow had broken
away from the rest of her hull.
Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Captain
Washington I. Chambers, USN.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 455 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 97983
Honda Point Disaster, September 1923
Wrecks of USS Nicholas (DD-311) and USS S.P. Lee
(DD-310) off Honda Point. Photographed by Sever some time after
8 September 1923, when both ships went aground with five other
destroyers during a foggy night.
By the time this photo was taken Nicholas' bow had broken
away from the rest of her hull.
Collection of Lieutenant Kelly Green.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 78KB; 740 x 465 pixels |
 |
The views presented below were taken several months following
the ship strandings, probably in early or mid-1924, when the wrecks
had been substantially broken up by the surf:
Photo #: NH 55101
Honda Point disaster, September 1923
Wreckage of USS Chauncey (DD-296) off Point Pedernales
(Honda Point), California, circa early or mid-1924, while she
was being broken up by the surf. This view shows her bow in the
foreground, with her midships deckhouse and a smokestack beyond.
Photograph was received from the Office of Naval Intelligence,
May 1930.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 56KB; 430 x 765 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 55102
Honda Point disaster, September 1923
Wreckage of USS Chauncey (DD-296) off Point Pedernales
(Honda Point), California, circa early or mid-1924, while she
was being broken up by the surf. This view shows her midships
deckhouse and a smokestack at left, with boilers beyond them,
in the center.
Photograph was received from the Office of Naval Intelligence,
May 1930.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 81KB; 435 x 765 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 42175
Honda Point disaster, September 1923
Part of the wreck of USS Woodbury (DD-309), just off Point
Pedernales (Honda Point), California, circa early or mid-1924,
while she was being broken up by the surf.
The item sticking up over Woodbury's remains, in the left
center, is a smokestack and the galley deckhouse from the wreck
of USS Chauncey (DD-296).
Photograph was received from the Office of Naval Intelligence,
May 1930.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 62KB; 420 x 765 pixels |
 |
For other pictures of the Honda Point wrecks, showing them
after they had been broken up by the surf, see:
Honda Point Disaster, 8 September
1923 -- Later Views of the Wrecks (Part II); and
Honda Point Disaster, 8 September
1923 -- Later Views of the Wrecks (Part III).
For more images related to the September 1923 Honda Point
Disaster, see:
Honda Point Disaster, 8 September
1923.
Source Note: The text that introduces the pages of this
presentation is largely based on the book: "Tragedy at Honda",
by Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, USN-Retired, and Colonel
Hans Christian Adamson, USAF-Retired (Chilton Company, Publishers,
Philadelphia and New York, 1960).
Return to Naval
Historical Center home page.
Page made 14 July 2002
Text revised 27 July 2002