On September 8, 1923, the biggest peacetime disaster in U.S. Navy history occurred when commodore Captain Edward Watson of Destroyer Squadron 11 (abbreviated as Desron 11) ignored his radio navigation device and led 9 of his 14 ships to run aground at Honda Point in the Santa Barbara Channel in California, with 7 of the Clemson-class destroyers sinking. Not only were 7 ships wrecked, the remaining 2 were left damaged, and 23 men lost their lives, with many more injured. Capt. Watson accepted blame for the disaster and was punished with the removal of his seniority. Another 3 officers were “admonished,” but the 11 officers who faced court martial were acquitted.
Digging Deeper
It seems the navigation had been conducted the old fashioned way, by “dead reckoning,” where the ship’s position would be ascertained using compass headings and revolutions of the propeller to estimate the theoretical speed of the ship. Apparently, the old-school commodore did not trust the relatively new radio navigation equipment and ignored what turned out to be proper information about the ships’ location.
