On the night of the 8th of September 1923, a flotilla of US Destroyers made a fatal navigation error, with 7 of them running aground at Point Honda north of San Diego. It remains the largest peacetime loss of vessels for the USN.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Point_Disaster
http://www.naval-history.net/WW1z07Americas.htm
Honda Point Disaster 1923
Re: Honda Point Disaster 1923
A ridiculous situation with echoes of over the last few weeks.
At least the court martial correctly apportioned the blame.
At least the court martial correctly apportioned the blame.
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
Re: Honda Point Disaster 1923
The court-martial convened in early November, charged with hearing the largest number of cases ever brought before a single naval judicial body. After weeks of hearings and testimony, the court found three officers guilty: Captain Watson, Lieutenant Commander Hunter, and Lieutenant Commander H. O. Roesch, skipper of the Nicholas. Rear Admiral S. S. Robison set Roesch's conviction aside, but Watson and Hunter each lost their chance for any future promotion.
Politics muddied the waters when Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby, under a cloud for corruption, played to the public galleries by officially disapproving the not-guilty verdicts, though his action had no force of law.
We now know that Blodgett's testimony was a careful tissue of half-truths. Omitted from the official record were his rising concerns over the squadron's navigation. In return, Hunter publicly accepted sole responsibility for charting the fatal course. Much more was left unsaid. No explanation was ever given for the Stoddert's two improper bearing requests. Small discrepancies between the log kept by the RDF station and several DesRon 11 ship logs remain unreconciled. There were also mishandlings of official documents, including the disappearance for many years of Blodgett's trial transcript.
Politics muddied the waters when Secretary of the Navy Edwin Denby, under a cloud for corruption, played to the public galleries by officially disapproving the not-guilty verdicts, though his action had no force of law.
We now know that Blodgett's testimony was a careful tissue of half-truths. Omitted from the official record were his rising concerns over the squadron's navigation. In return, Hunter publicly accepted sole responsibility for charting the fatal course. Much more was left unsaid. No explanation was ever given for the Stoddert's two improper bearing requests. Small discrepancies between the log kept by the RDF station and several DesRon 11 ship logs remain unreconciled. There were also mishandlings of official documents, including the disappearance for many years of Blodgett's trial transcript.
Quo Fata Vocant-Whither the Fates call
Jim
Jim
Re: Honda Point Disaster 1923
Have these documents been recovered? Or were they deliberately shredded?
''Give me a Ping and one Ping only'' - Sean Connery.
Re: Honda Point Disaster 1923
The fact that the documents mysteriously disappeared -suggests destruction; but I have no proof of that,
aurora
aurora
Quo Fata Vocant-Whither the Fates call
Jim
Jim