Tragedy At Honda E-Book

Charles A. Lockwood

• Herausgeber: Binnacle Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Known to seafarers as 'The Devil's Jaw,' Point Honda has lured ships to its jagged rocks off the coast of California for centuries, but its worst calamity occurred on 8 September 1923, the night nine U.S. Navy destroyers ran into Honda's fog-wrapped reefs.

Leseprobe

Tragedy at Honda

Charles A. Lockwood

Published by Binnacle Books, 2019.

Copyright

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Tragedy at Honda by Charles A. Lockwood and Hans Christian Adamson.  

©Copyright 2019 by Binnacle Books.

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-359-90165-4.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Tragedy at Honda

1 | Honda and the Devil’s Jaw

2 | So Long, San Francisco!

3 | Honda: Rugged and Untamable

4 | Prelude to Disaster

5 | Hellbent for Honda

6 | Giorvas Smells Smoke

7 | Crunched in the Devil’s Jaw

8 | Midnight on the Mesa

9 | Dawn in the Graveyard of Ships

10 | Shifting Winds Blow Guilt

11 | Echoes of Pile-Up Roll Like Thunder

12 | Doomsday in San Diego

13 | Facing the End of the Road

Further Reading: Dawn Like Thunder

U.S.S. Woodbury at the Point Honda shipwreck site

1

Honda and the Devil’s Jaw

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HONDA.

Black, bleak, and hostile; the scene of countless tragedies of the sea; Honda mesa lifts its forbidding cliffs of primordial volcanic rock steeply out of Magellan’s misnamed Pacific Ocean.

It rears its ugly head about 15 miles northwest of the point where California’s coastal sea lanes bend sharply to the east to enter Santa Barbara Channel.

Extending seaward from the base of the craggy bluff which at its highest is as tall as an eight-story building; a sweeping semicircle of serrated rocks, needle-sharp pinnacles, and razor-honed reefs stands boldly above the water or lies hidden below its surface.

Without stretching the imagination too far, the scene resembles the fang-studded jaw of a grotesque prehistoric monster built on a gigantic scale.

Honda.

A weird and depressing place. Brooding silence and the lifelessness of a morgue spread like a pall over the desolate spot when the wind is low and the sea is quiet.

Not even the calls of gulls, or of other marine birds, are heard. The only sound, the only movement, is the endless cycle of the surf; the eternal slithering of waves that rise and strike against the bluff, the rocks, and the pinnacles only to recede; hissing angrily; like broods of frustrated serpents of the deep.

Honda.

Lair of evil jinns who serve the despotic ocean in its most tyrannical and destructive moods. The jinns of unpredictable gales that maul, break, and rip obstacles in their paths. The jinns of fog, gray and dense as dirty wool, that wipe out vision and muffle sound.

The jinns of wayward currents that carry seafaring men to disaster. The jinns of high-crested seas that form regiments of thundering breakers. When the jinns of Honda do the bidding of the cruel sea, mighty forces are set into motion.

Far offshore, winds come howling out of unexpected corners. Along the coast, impenetrable fog hides the bluff as well as its offshore reefs and rocks. In the shipping lanes, uncharted currents with onshore sets begin to flow.

And, at Honda, spume-crested seas hurl themselves upon cliffs and rocks amid crashing roars like those of a thousand cannon. Then Honda is in its element.

The trap is set: waiting, patient, and ready for its next victim. Be the offering large or small, steel or timber, it makes no difference. All ships are welcome morsels to its insatiable appetite.

Honda.

An ancient and enduring menace to ships and seafarers from the sixteenth century until this very day. The Spaniards, who plied their tall-masted, high-pooped galleons between Mexico and the Philippines, had a name for Honda: they called it La Guijada del Diablo, ‘The Devil’s Jaw.’

Today’s men of the sea know it as the Graveyard of Ships.

Generations of sailors have spoken the word Honda with profound respect; thousands of them with soul-gripping fear; hundreds of them in mortal agony. And yet, the name Honda does not appear on any mariner’s chart or on any surveyor’s map.

As a means of geographical identification it is written mainly in the minds of the men of the sea. And, even then, it is not always recorded in the same manner. To some, it is known as Point Honda. To others as Honda Head. To still others as La Honda or Honda Mesa; often as not, just Honda. Actually, Honda is part of a landmass that forms a bulging bluff listed on charts and maps as Point Pedernales.

It is located less than 3 miles north of Point Arguello [see map following page]. There the flashing beam and the hoarse fog signal of Point Arguello Light and the electronic bearings broadcast by the Arlight Naval Radio Station do their share toward making the coastal lanes safe for seafarers who, in weather fair or foul, shape their course to make the sharp turn to port from the open ocean into Santa Barbara Channel.

At low tide, the rock-strewn beaches before Honda reveal the gruesome tomb markers of bleached bones and rusty remnants of ships that somehow made the critical turn too soon, only to be caught in the grip and chewed to bits in the Devil’s Jaw.

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SINCE 1542, WHEN JUAN Cabrillo was the first European to sail along the California coast, Honda has taken a steady and shocking toll of coastal shipping. It was thus in the days of sail. And it has continued to be thus in this century of expanding nuclear propulsion.

No one knows how Honda got its name. But it is believed that it was first bestowed upon the barren and desert-like mesa which rises gradually from the cliffs that face the sea and runs eastward to the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains.

Backdrop of the Honda scene is a huge lump of a rock that rises to a height of 2,100 feet and bears the ironic name of Mount Tranquillon [‘tranquil’]. The northern boundary of Honda mesa is rimmed by a gully which early Spanish ranchers, because of its depth, called ‘Canada Hondo.’ Literally translated, this means ‘Deep Trail.’

In time, so speculation runs, this was shortened to Honda and made to include not only the mesa but also the ocean’s diabolical trap of explosive violence and sudden death. A name to be feared by captains of vessels large and small, sail and steam, merchant ships and men-o’-war...

Honda!

2

So Long, San Francisco!

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OVER THE STEEPLES AND the towers that grace the hills of the City by the Golden Gate, a favorite haven and host to seafaring men of all nations since the seventeen hundreds, the dawn of September 8, 1923, broke clear and warm. The accustomed fog, which plagued seagoing operations and ferry traffic during the hours of darkness, had lifted. The eastern sky was aflame with red as the sun tinged the edges of a few wind-blown black clouds. Soon it rose majestically over Mount Diablo to open and adorn the day as well as to drive the shadows of night from the cluttered waterfronts and streets of San Francisco and her sister cities that rim the Bay.

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USS San Francisco under the Golden Gate Bridge, 1942

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PROBABLY FEW OF THOSE awake to witness Nature’s thrilling color display on the birth of this new day gave even a passing thought to that age-old sailorman’s warning: “Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning,” an omen of death and disaster at sea. Hoary maxims of that kind belonged to the age of sail. In this day of steam and of steel-hulled ships, with thousands of horsepower awaiting a touch of the throttle, dangers from storm, wind, and wave have come to mean little to modern seamen.

Or so they seem to think. The thoughts of watch-standing naval personnel on the decks and bridges of the large and small, shark-gray men-o’-war which crowded the docks and mid-stream anchorage were probably concerned with the fact that another Fleet Week in hospitable, fascinating San Francisco had passed into history.

Yes: Fleet Week, with its naval review, its fanfare, and its dances; with its parades, its boat races and baseball games; its thundering salutes to visiting dignitaries, snappy side-boys [crewmen detailed to flank the gangway when dignitaries board or disembark], and the shrill beeps of the boson’s pipe, was over. The mighty battleships of the United States Fleet, after a summer of Fleet Exercises in Puget Sound and northern areas, were even now, with attendant destroyer squadrons and auxiliary vessels, getting up steam for return to their regular bases at San Pedro and San Diego.

Fleet Week, San Francisco, 1908

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THE DESTROYER Young was a trim, smart-looking member of Captain Robert Morris’ top-notch outfit, Destroyer Division 33. She was nested with her division mates at Pier 15 in San Francisco. On her deck, two men stood talking at the gangway. One, the Officer of the Watch, was a young ensign. Complete with binoculars slung around his neck and, in his hand, a cup of coffee strong enough to float a depth charge, he listened with evident interest to his Quartermaster of the Watch, a veteran of many cruises in “four-stackers” or “tin-cans,” as they were more familiarly known in Navy slang.

Idly passing the last few minutes before the time came to call all hands and get the ship ready for sea, the duo had been speculating upon the portent of such a blood-red sunrise. The Quartermaster had seemed worried.

“Yes, sir,” the older man was saying, “I know it’s a mighty red sky, but that’s not what’s bothering me. I’ve seen lots of threatening sunrises that didn’t bring on stormy weather. I guess it’s the fact that our new Chief Commissary Steward has been absent over liberty for two days. See? Unless he shows up in the next half hour, he won’t make this trip to San Diego with the Young. See, sir?”

“Yes, I see!” replied the OOD [Officer on Duty] as he suppressed a grin. “Lieutenant Donaldson, the Commissary Officer, also has been worried about that. He’s checked with the contractors ashore and inventoried the storerooms. The Chief’s accounts are straight, the provision lockers well stocked, and we won’t starve.”

“Well, sir, the truth is, according to scuttlebutt, that he’s been jittery about making this run down the coast. He is supposed to have said he had a hunch something’s going to happen; something bad. See? Guess he’s got some of the boys believing him. Me! I don’t quite know what to think. But ...”

“What! An old hand like you superstitious, Quartermaster?” scoffed the Ensign, as he smiled incredulously.

“No, sir and I actually hadn’t thought about it until yesterday afternoon. But on the First Dog Watch, I saw three or four rats trying to get ashore from our ship over the mooring lines and gangway. See? One of the black gang kicked two of them overboard. And, sir, you know that rats quitting the ship is a jolt to any sailor.”

From the distant Oakland waterfront, interrupting their talk, came the muted sound of sirens and whistles being tested.

It was echoed from the piers of San Francisco as other ships of Destroyer Squadron 11 tested their sound signal equipment preparatory to getting underway. As per routine, the four-stackers—the “Cavalry of the Sea,” were to precede the Fleet out the channel. Theoretically, their purpose was to liquidate lurking enemy submarines.

In the rush of getting underway, the conversation with the Quartermaster was forgotten. However, the Ensign OOD recalled later that, as lines were being singled up, he saw no rats deserting the ship.

The Chief Commissary Steward, however, was still missing as the Young backed away from the “nest.”

DesDiv 33 backed out of Pier 15 and formed up into Division, with the flagship S. P. Lee leading, followed by the Young, the Woodbury, and the Nicholas. At the same time, DesDiv 31, commanded by Commander William S. Pye, was snaking its way out of Oakland Estuary from its berth at the Municipal Pier. The Farragut, as Division Flag, led the way with the Somers, Fuller, J. F. Burnes, Percival, and Chauncey tailed in her wake.

Upon signal to clear the harbor, DesDiv 32, commanded by Commander Walter G. Roper and nested at Pier 36 on the Embarcadero, backed out of its berth. One by one, its DDs formed up with the flagship Kennedy leading. The Thompson, the Paul Hamilton, and the Stoddert followed in that order.

The Delphy, Flagship of Captain Edward H. Watson, Commander Destroyer Squadron 11—composed of DesDivs 31, 32, and 33—after the preliminary shrill “Whripp, whripp, whripp” of her siren and the deep-throated “Whoot” of her whistle, got underway from her anchorage in mid-channel, with signal flags flying from both yardarms. Meanwhile Destroyer Squadron 12 , Captain James H. Tomb, scheduled to follow DesRon 11 to sea, had been clearing the throats of its whistles and sirens. For late sleepers in San Francisco, it was a noisy morning.

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THERE WERE FOUR ABSENTEES from the destroyers of Captain Watson’s command on that beautiful September morning.

The William Jones, of DesDiv 33, skippered by Lieutenant Commander B. B. Taylor, had suffered an engineering casualty which prevented her from working up to the higher speeds. She therefore had got underway shortly after midnight, following, through heavy fog, the movements of the destroyer tender Melville, flagship of DesRons, which also proceeded to sea at that hour.

Rear Admiral S. E. W. [Sumner Ely Wetmore] Kittelle, Commander Destroyer Squadrons, Battle Fleet, who flew his two-starred flag in the Melville, departed at this ghostly hour because of his Flagship’s limited speed and in order to reach the Destroyer Base in San Diego not too long after his more fleet-footed fighting ships arrived in their home port. The Farquhar of DesDiv 32, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Jeff Davis Smith, was another cripple and got underway on the stroke of midnight to trail the fog whistle of the Melville out of the Bay.

The Reno, also of DesDiv 32, backed away from her mates immediately after the Farquhar and headed seaward, amid the mournful hooting of fog signals, but not because of engineering difficulties.

On the contrary, her genial, good-looking skipper, Lieutenant Commander J. R. “Dick” Barry, a veteran destroyer man, had requested and received orders to take advantage of this operation to make the annual smoke prevention and full-speed run required of all destroyers.

His zeal and foresight was commendable and deserved success. However, Fate decreed otherwise, for the test was never completed. Still, from the human angle, the unforeseen outcome reflected great credit upon the Reno and her people.

The final absentee was from DesDiv 33, the Zeilin, commanded by Lieutenant Commander H. G. Shonerd. She was, at this time, in dry dock at Seattle because of a near-fatal collision in Puget Sound. This destroyer was one of the honor escorts of the Navy Transport Henderson which, in a dense fog, at 0756 on July 27, had rammed the escorting destroyer on the port side amidships.

So serious was the flooding which resulted that all hands abandoned the Zeilin at 0815 in anticipation of capsizing. Only a few days before, while hurrying to Seattle to arrive before the Henderson, the heavy cruiser Seattle (Flagship of the United States Fleet, with the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Robert E. Coontz, aboard) had gone aground in one of those pea soup fogs for which that region is famous.

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THE Henderson, the unwitting cause of these calamities, was returning to Seattle after taking the President of the United States, Warren G. Harding, on a round trip to Alaska for an inspection of that land of fog, fish, snow, ice, huskies, gold, and potential oil. Six days later, in San Francisco on August 2, President Harding died.

In the over-all picture, it had not been a happy summer for the United States Fleet. But, in this first week of September, better times appeared to lie ahead. Naval appropriations, made by the Harding Administration, for the fiscal year 1923-24 had been more liberal. This would permit bringing the short-handed crews of naval vessels up to full, or nearly full, complements. It also permitted increased fuel allowances for all ships, thus providing for more realistic and more frequent battle exercises and training. This news was especially welcome to the faster ships of the Navy: carriers, cruisers, and destroyers.

Especially destroyers, the very essence of whose almost suicidal torpedo attacks on enemy battle lines is speed—speed to get into torpedo firing range—speed to get out again before being battered to smoking hulks by the flaming guns of the enemy.

In the final phase of their summer cruise, the forthcoming run to San Diego, Admiral Kittelle thought he saw an excellent opportunity to use to good advantage some of this increased fuel allowance for a high-speed endurance test of his destroyers’ engineering plants. Such a realistic trial would immediately show which ships were ready for high-speed battle operations and which ships needed improved maintenance and upkeep methods—or, possibly, new engineer officers or new skippers.

Destroyer men are, of necessity, very realistic in their approach to the solution of problems. Weak links do not strengthen a chain or a team, such as a destroyer squadron must be. And so it was that, when Admiral Kittelle’s operation order directing the return of Destroyer Squadrons, Battle Fleet, to San Diego was issued, it specified that all destroyers, with the exception of a few cripples, should conduct an endurance run to their home base. Captain E. H. Watson, ComDesRon 11, and Captain J. H. Tomb, ComDesRon 12, passed the appropriate orders down the line to their respective commands.

As was customary before embarking upon an operation of importance, Captain Watson called for a conference of Commanding and Engineer Officers on the afternoon of September 7, the day before DesRon 11 was scheduled to sortie from San Francisco.

The Division Commanders, of course, likewise were summoned. Realizing that the tiny wardroom of the Delphy could not comfortably hold the 40-some officers who would attend, Captain Watson requested, and was granted, permission by Captain B. B. “Buzzing Benny” Wygant of the Melville, along whose port side Delphy was moored, to use the Flagship’s much larger wardroom.

Shortly before 1500, the Melville’s starboard gangway was besieged by a flotilla of tiny destroyer gigs. With smart speed, they discharged their loads of sun-tanned, brine-washed, sharp-looking destroyer officers. The keenness of their glances and the roll of their walk marked them as men long accustomed to the vicissitudes of life, wind, and wave aboard their high-speed and versatile vessels.

Captain Watson (“Commodore” Watson, as Squadron and Division Commanders are traditionally called) receiving them in the wardroom, took his place at the head of the long table and called the conference to order on the stroke of 6 bells. As he returned their greetings and looked down the lines of faces turned toward him, pride showed in his every feature and in the tone of his voice.

While he was widely regarded as a battleship skipper, much of his career had been spent in smaller ships.

These men were of the type that he knew: competent, resourceful, undaunted. During the 13 months that he had commanded DesRon 11, Watson had come to know their many fine qualities.

Present were his principal staff officers, Lieutenant Commander H. G. “Blinky” Donald, Squadron Engineer Officer; Lieutenant Commander H. K. “Chink” Lewis, Squadron Gunnery Officer; and Lieutenant Laurence “Jasper” Wild, Squadron Communications Officer. All were experienced destroyer sailors and excellent in their specialties.

“Gentlemen,” said the Squadron Commander quietly, “you have all received Commander Destroyer Squadrons, Battle Fleet, Operation Order 39 dash 23 of August 31. You know the times set for getting underway and the order in which we will sortie. Divisions will proceed out of the harbor independently. DesRon 12 will follow us out and proceed independently to San Diego. It will keep well to westward of us, so that both squadrons will have room for maneuvering.

“I expect to form the Squadron off San Francisco Lightship at 0830 on a southerly course, in line of divisions. We will have a few tactical maneuvers and short-range battle practice training.”

He looked around the room and smiled as he paused. Then he continued; “The only part of the operation order which may prove a bit difficult is the matter of the standard speed specified. Commander Donald will have a few comments to make on that part. This has been a tough summer and I know you have been concerned, as I have, over the number of engineering casualties which we have suffered.

“Perhaps fuel and speed restrictions imposed for reasons of economy after the World War have caused us to lose sight of the more severe demands that battle conditions would bring. Possibly our upkeep has gotten a bit perfunctory or slack. We must not let the recently established 5-5-3 armament ratio lull us into a false sense of security. The German Kaiser thought he could conquer the world. There may be others with the same idea.”

Commander Donald then took over. “As you know, gentlemen, the fuel and speed restrictions have been relaxed somewhat in this new fiscal year. This will permit us to engage in a few more high-speed exercises and more closely simulate war conditions than we could during the days of fuel shortages.

“The standard speed of twenty knots, which has been set for tomorrow’s run to San Diego, will crowd our cruising turbines to the limit of their power. This order comes without warning. And it leaves no room for excuses. To be sure, you have had little time for more than day-to-day maintenance since the Fleet Exercises began and, actually, your entire plants would have to be in top-notch condition to maintain the power that is required. I know what you are thinking. But such is a sailor’s lot.

“On the other hand, Squadron 11 is no worse off than Squadron 12, and if they can make a good run, as they say they will, we can make one that’s better. Just remember that it is trials such as the one coming up, with no time for preparations and fine tuning, that make ships and squadrons stand out above others in maintenance and resourcefulness. It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again, this run will be something that, among engineers, separates the men from the boys.

“If the ships of Squadron 11 make good scores on this run and keep on pitching during the rest of the fiscal year, I expect to see the big Red E, for excellence in engineering, blossom on one of our smoke-stacks come next July. I’m fully convinced that you have the experience, the know-how, and the determination to do it.”

After a few technical questions and some discussion, Captain Watson dismissed his officers with a friendly graciousness that marked him as the leader that he was. Captain Watson’s quiet yet resolute manner had won him many friends throughout the Navy.

“That will be all, gentlemen. Good luck, and as our Canadian cousins would say, God bless.”

ComDesRon 11 was on the threshold of 50, a true salt-horse sailor with graying hair and a close-cropped, somewhat bristly, mustache. Of stature, he was medium tall, a bit heavy-set but in fine physical trim, and he bore himself with an air of distinction, authority, and decision. As an officer, he was genial but exacting. His voice was soft. On the other hand, he was rather quick-spoken for a son of the Bluegrass State. Edward Howe Watson was not only the scion of an old Kentucky family, but a Navy Junior to boot. His father, who retired as a Rear Admiral in 1904, was a member of the Naval Academy Class of 1860 when that institution was but 20 years old.

John Crittenden Watson served under Admiral Farragut during the battles of New Orleans and Mobile Bay. Virtually, from the day he was born in 1874, Edward Watson had been destined to become a Kentucky gentleman and an officer in the United States Navy. He succeeded admirably in both respects. After being graduated from the Naval Academy in 1895, Edward Watson served in various commands. His record was so excellent that, in 1913, he was selected for the two-year course at the Naval War College.

On completing it, he served for a time as Executive Officer of the battleship Utah. In March 1918, he was given command of the battleship Alabama. This he skippered during World War I in Atlantic waters and won a citation for meritorious services. He was detached from this command in January 1919.

Following extensive briefing in the Office of Naval Intelligence, Captain Watson was named U.S. Naval Attaché at the American Embassy at Tokyo, Japan.

Stern view of USS Utah (BB-31)

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THIS, IT WILL BE REMEMBERED, was a period when the international barometer was very low in the Pacific. He remained there until the spring of 1922. Then he returned to this country to take command of Squadron 11, Destroyer Squadrons, Battle Fleet, and hoisted his Commodore’s flag in the Delphy.

During the years of his retirement, Rear Admiral Watson had followed, with pride and interest, his son’s rise in the service they both loved so well. In 1923, what with the promotional log-jam that followed World War I, advancement to flag rank was not easy. But old-timers in the Navy took it quite for granted that, among those who had their fingers firmly on their numbers, Eddie Watson would be sure to make Admiral. He had the training, the record, and the capacity to assume responsibility.

To live to see this achievement fulfilled was the long-cherished dream of Rear Admiral Watson, then more than 80 years old. He was to die within three months of that September day with the sad knowledge that his fondest hope regarding his son would never be realized.

The four-stackers of World War I design were, in 1923, the pride of the Navy. Compared with the high-speed, heavy-hitting power and navigational aids of destroyers of today, they do not measure up impressively. But in this story we are looking back almost 40 years at the old DDs. And let us not forget that, old though they were, 50 of them through the operation of Lend-Lease, were good enough to help save England in 1940-41.

So far as equipment and performance were concerned, the long, lean combat greyhound was the Buck Rogers vessel of the War to Save the World for Democracy. Her maximum speed was phenomenal. Her armament—guns, torpedoes, anti-aircraft and anti-submarine weapons—was powerful. A veritable dreamboat of destruction in the eyes of the Gods of War. From knife-sharp bow to elegantly rounded fantail, the typical destroyer in Squadron 11 had a length of 314 feet, a beam of 32 feet, a displacement of 1,250 tons, and a draft of nearly 10 feet. She had two high-power and two low-power turbines that could deliver no less than 27,000 horsepower.

Her two triple-bladed propellers could push her through the seas at 32 knots or at a rate of approximately 36.9 land miles per hour. On her main deck—flush from stem to stern—stood the four rakishly planted smoke-stacks that served her four high-pressure boilers. Between the #2 and #3 stacks lay the galley deckhouse where the cooks fussed over their highly important pots and pans. It was topped by two rapid-firing 4-inch guns similar to one mounted on the forecastle.

Forward of the smoke-stacks was the bridge structure with its chart house, radio shack, and Captain’s emergency cabin. Aft of the stacks, in the waist of the ship, were four sets of triple torpedo tubes—two to starboard, two to port—separated by a tall, slim searchlight tower.

Next came the after deckhouse with the torpedo storeroom and crew’s head. On this housing was mounted the fourth 4-inch gun. On the fantail stood the 3-inch anti-aircraft gun and a rack for the release of depth charges.

For her time and kind, this sea-going hornet packed considerable sting. Two masts completed the picture. Between them, they supported the wireless and radio telephone antennas. The foremast, some 40 feet higher than the stub mast, also carried a crow’s nest and a signal yardarm. Normally, a destroyer’s complement would be her Captain, 7 Wardroom Officers, 10 Petty Officers, and a crew of 114. But, due to tight postwar economies, nearly all destroyer personnel ran from 20 to 30 percent short of full strength.

In many cases, ensigns performed the duties of full-fledged Lieutenants. In those days, because of undermanned conditions, the heads of Commanding Officers rested as uneasily as those of kings were wont to do. And, to be candid, the upcoming 20-knot engineering run—all the 427 miles from San Francisco to San Diego—gave all three Division Commanders in Squadron 11, as well as the Captains of the DDs that would take part in it, good reasons for feeling a bit uncertain.

They were far from sure that their vessels could make the run at such continuous high speed—about 23 land miles per hour—on the cruising turbines. As previously noted, in September 1923, the Navy had only recently been released from the stringent fuel economy order in force since the war years. During that dreary period destroyers had been restricted to 12 to 15 knots. As a result, their engineering plants had been insufficiently tested for higher speeds.

The impending run had been advocated by the Squadron Engineer Officer, Lieutenant Commander “Blinky” Donald, because many engineering troubles had been encountered during the summer.

He felt it was essential to get a good test of the squadron’s engines under maximum demands. Hence the standard speed of 20 knots ordered for the run from San Francisco to San Diego was just what he desired. This was a crucial speed because the cruising turbines could just barely make it and no ship wanted to resort to the use of her main turbines because of the resulting increased use of fuel and her correspondingly lowered standing in the engineering competition.

Destroyers, who could make it on their cruising turbines, were therefore in the best engineering condition. It was a challenge, and, while all concerned were eager to meet it, they were none too sure about the ability of their individual ships to make the grade without a bit more preparation and working up.

But, as one might say, the order of the day called for a cheery “Aye, aye, sir” and a brisk “Let’s go, sailors. What are we waiting for? Squeeze the last drop of horsepower out of those turbines. Let the old girls shake and shiver till they rattle your back teeth. Let’s go!”

These tin-can sailors had no fear of wind. They had no dread of seas. They were used to a coastline hidden by a mantilla of fog. But they failed to reckon with the jinns of Honda. They neglected the warnings of bilge rats that scented danger, of a Chief Petty Officer driven AWOL by nameless fear, and of a sky that glowed crimson in the dawning. But let us take a glance at that sunlit early September morning in San Francisco’s traffic teeming harbor. Bridge builders had not as yet spun their steel cables across the Golden Gate or between San Francisco and Oakland.

Ferry boats, flotillas of them, scurried like clumsy water-beetles from shore to shore and scooted around the great, gray battle-wagons that rode placidly at anchor in mid-channel. Abroad the destroyers forming up in the wake of the Squadron Flagship Delphy, from bridges to boiler rooms, they were ready for proceeding to sea and for whatever signal from the Commodore might speed up their forced draft blowers and send them racing to new stations for the morning’s maneuvers.

Destroyer Squadron 11 did, indeed, make an inspiring picture as it moved slowly past the San Francisco waterfront. Colorful flag hoists, identifying each ship in the International Code, flew from their yardarms. Signal lamps blinked messages from ship to ship.

Leadsmen in the chains called their soundings. Captains and navigators were at the conn. The national ensign (steaming colors, to destroyer men) flew at the gaff of each cocky-looking stub mast. Many a heart that morning beat faster with pride and gratitude at the sight. Gathering speed, with the Commodore’s broad command pennant flying at her fore, the Delphy, trailed by her slim, gray teammates, stood out the channel for the appointed rendezvous off San Francisco Lightship.

Grim Alcatraz Island, the beautiful Golden Gate, and the rough, shallow Potato Patch outside were quickly passed. Gracefully, then, as though in a curtsey, she and her brood dipped their bows deep into the long ground swells of the mighty Pacific.

The rays of the sun danced blithely on the foam-flecked waters and highlighted immaculate metal and paintwork on the briskly steaming men-o’-war. No one could know that seven of these gallant little fighting ships would never enter the Golden Gate or any other port again.

3

Honda: Rugged and Untamable

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ON THAT SEPTEMBER 8 in 1923, Honda, as always, waited with hopeful and hungry patience for offerings brought by the jinns of wind, wave, current, and fog. It stood as changeless in appearance as it did in character, desolate and dangerous. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, the progress and development that had come to fruition in other parts of California had not reached Honda, nor has it to this day.

Difficult to reach, except by sea, and yet offering no safe anchorage, Honda remained the bleak no man’s land it had been before the days of Spanish occupation in upper California. In 1923, the mesa’s sandy soil supported the same sparse growth of grass, cactus, and desert plants it nourished about a century earlier when, as part of a 24,992-acre land grant, it was ceded to Anastacio Carrillo by the then still young Mexican Republic. The huge grant—greater in length than in width—ran about fifteen miles along the coast from Canon del Coja on the Santa Barbara Channel, northward to the deep ravine called Canada Honda.

The entire region was known as Punta La Concepcion. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln confirmed the title to the Carrillo family. In later years, the northern half of the grant passed into the hands of Captain Robert Sudden. In 1923, his son Robert, as at the time of this writing, lived with his family at his Rancho La Espada about halfway between Point Arguello and Point Conception. The former is a few miles south of Honda.

The latter is the upper gatepost of the shipping lanes that lead into and out of the Santa Barbara Channel. Thirty-seven years ago, only one rough and winding road—called the Sudden Grade—led to the Honda region from the outside world via the little town of Lompoc, up the torturous Miguelito Canyon road and over the rollercoaster country formed by the Lompoc Hills—high-rising, steep-sided heaps of rock and sand that stand like tumultuous breakers on a petrified sea.

To be sure, there were an almost impassable wagon road and a few narrow pack-trails. As for the latter, they demanded the agility and surefootedness possessed only by burros and mountain goats.

In 1901, after two years of herculean labors, the Southern Pacific Railroad completed the work of constructing approximately 50 miles of single track along the narrow coastal plateau of Point Conception. For a full quarter of a century Honda had played its role in holding the Southern Pacific at bay. It had, in fact, because of the engineering difficulties involved, contributed its part toward keeping the coastal railroad system divided into two halves.

The northern half of rail began at San Francisco and ended at Surf. The latter is a small fishing hamlet that sends a sidetrack to Lompoc some 9 miles inland. About 50 miles to the south of Surf, at the village of Elwood on the Santa Barbara Channel, the rails resumed their reach toward Los Angeles. From Point Conception, the coast trends in a gentle northwestward curve for about 12 miles to Point Arguello.

Next it runs northeastward, in another gentle curve, a good 10 miles to Point Purisima. The only things that are gentle about this stretch of ship-killing coastline are the two curves just mentioned. The railroad builders found the terrain between Point Arguello and Point Conception especially difficult to tackle. The coast consists of a series of bold, rocky cliffs, 100 to 400 feet high.

They had to lay their rails along the slopes of these obstacles or drill and dynamite their way to build tunnels. Between Surf and Honda—a short but tough 5-mile run—the engineers were called upon to throw tall trestles across the yawning chasms of three major ravines gouged out of the mountains by the sharp chisels of flash floods.

First came the wide gap of Bear Canyon, next the narrower Spring Canyon. Last to be bridged was the broad engineering jump across Canada Honda, with its usually dry creek bed snaking through the bottom of the defile far below. There were other but minor gullies to span in this formidable stretch of coastal wilderness, but Honda, Bear, and Spring Canyons comprised what the railroaders came to call the Terrible Three.

To their left and ahead, as construction gangs worked southward from Surf and up a slowly rising grade toward Honda mesa, towered the sharply ridged ranges of the Santa Ynez Mountains.

On their right, and increasingly farther below, the great swells of the Pacific rose with deceptive laziness into breakers that crashed thunderously as they assaulted the rocks and pinnacles that form an almost constant barrier between sea and shore.

On the completion of the railroad link between the two halves of the Southern Pacific coastline, human dwellers—in the guise of a 16-man railroad section crew—came to Honda mesa to remain only a few decades.

To ensure the continued safety of the track, a section gang was established along the rails on the mesa, a quarter of a mile south of the trestle that crosses Canada Honda and a good quarter of a mile up the slope from the cliffs, rocks, and reefs variously known to men of the sea as the Devil’s Jaw, Point Pedernales, Graveyard of Ships, or just plain Honda.

Because of the prominent roles they were to play in the impending tragedy at Honda, the stretch of rails between Surf and Honda mesa, as well as the quarters of the section gang, must be brought into full focus.

This applies also to Section Foreman John Giorvas, a square-set man of Greek ancestry, in early middle age, with a pugnacious jaw and quick brown eyes. He lived in a story-and-a-half frame house that contained a living room, a kitchen, and a storeroom on the ground floor and two small bedrooms upstairs.

Not large quarters, but they suited John Giorvas well enough. The laborers in his section gang, all Mexicans, lived in two long, low bunk-houses that were divided into single rooms, each with its own entrance. Between the bunkhouses was a barn that sheltered the section’s hand-driven track car. Like all Southern Pacific structures of that era, the buildings were painted a dark yellow with brown trimmings.

A double row of trees, planted along the line of buildings in 1901, had by 1923 grown tall and stately. Drinking water, an extremely scarce commodity in this vicinity, came from a subterranean reservoir by means of a solitary pump. The men, the buildings, and the pump have gone but the trees still bend stubbornly before summer winds and winter gales.

Up the track toward Surf, near the northern end of the Canada Honda trestle and half a mile from the small group of section gang buildings, stood a small frame building hardly larger than a toolshed. This was Honda Station. But it rated only as a seldom-used flag stop.

There was neither station master, ticket seller, freight handler, nor telegrapher. In fact, Honda’s only means of swift communication with the outside world was a telephone line that ran from an instrument in John Giorvas’ living room to the Southern Pacific dispatcher’s office in Surf, exactly 5.8 miles away. To be sure, John had an old-fashioned wall phone that connected him with a party line of the Santa Barbara Telephone Company. But this outlet was usually clogged by the long-winded conversations of ranch wives and/or their teenage offspring. Giorvas felt that he should be paid time-and-a-half whenever he tried to put a call through on that phone between dawn and bedtime. Giorvas was a somewhat junior foreman on the Southern Pacific’s roster when he first came to Honda in the late 1910’s.

It was a far from desirable assignment along the railroad’s coastline system, but there was something in the nature of Honda and in the make-up of Giorvas that complemented each other.

The years went by. Section hands came and went in a fairly steady procession, but John Giorvas stayed on. As time passed, he learned to understand the eternal melancholy of the mesa with its backdrop of changeless mountains. He also came to know the unpredictable moods of the dictatorial sea. To his lively imagination, the sheer black cliffs and wave-honed rocks of La Guijada del Diablo were sources of constant fascination.

On Sundays, or after work on weekdays, Giorvas would often pick his way down the sloping mesa to the edge of the bluff. That is, except when thick curtains of fog blotted out all vision over land and sea. And that was rather frequently. In fact, over long periods of time, the keepers of nearby Point Arguello Light annually entered more than 2000 hours of fog, year following year, in their watch logs.

The steep wall of volcanic rock that runs along this section of the California coast bulges seaward in a fairly well-rounded curve west and slightly north of the section gang’s buildings. At the same time it rises sharply from a level of some 30 feet to one of about 70.

This elevation is further heightened by a sharply rising up-slope near the northern end of the bluff that ends in a small, almost circular, hilltop some 300 feet above sea level. In 1923, this point of elevation was one of a brace of twin peaks connected by a sway-backed strip of land which gave the peaks the name of Saddle Rock. The horn of the saddle was the peak just back of the bulge of volcanic rock. Officially, on charts and maps, the site was known as Point Pedernales.

The name, which means “flints,” derives from the large number of arrowheads, fashioned from flint by Indians, and found on the site by rancheros in the days of Carrillo ownership. To the left of the bluff, and only about 30 feet from shore, is a smallish island with precipitous sides that rise about 25 feet above sea level. The island—it has no name, but let us call it Bridge Rock—is about 100 feet wide and twice as long.

Its surface, cut into a crazy pattern of keenly edged crevices, offers at best poor footing. Jagged rocks rise here and there.

Many of them are needle-pointed and sharp as Mafia stilettos. A peculiar feature of this nameless hunk of lava is that, despite appearances, it is not an island at all but is connected with the shore by a narrow, rocky bridge. Built by nature, this link to the mainland is barely 3 feet wide and more than 20 feet above the seas that surge impatiently beneath it.

This dangerous avenue of escape from the wave-battered rock was to serve as a major prop on the stage of disaster during the action of the Tragedy at Honda. Surrounding this island-like projection, but most of them submerged even at low tide, are numerous rocks and ledges. In a broken chain they run seaward for a distance of 500 yards, where they surface in the form of two large masses of fang-like pinnacle rocks surrounded by smaller but equally formidable satellites.

So much for the left side of the Devil’s Jaw. The right extension pushes seaward from close inshore, off a sandy beach formed by Honda Creek, in the form of a series of visible or submerged pinnacle rocks and ledges.

It was here the liner Santa Rosa struck in 1911 with great loss of life and complete loss of the ship. Twelve years later, the rusted engines and broken boilers of the luxury steamer still stood as somber tomb markers just above the narrow sandy beach. Even when the sea is smooth, lively surgings of surf and swells sweep continually over the exposed pinnacle rocks as if to keep them well whetted against the time when they will be called upon to rip through the bottoms or gash the sides of luckless vessels.

In the entire reach along the New World’s western shores from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska’s Point Barrow there is hardly a coastline that offers a greater concentration of maritime dangers than the strip which runs between Point Purisima and Point Conception.

The latter, even today, is labeled in the United States Coast Pilot as the Cape Horn of the Pacific. This because of the heavy northwesterly gales encountered off it at the turn into Santa Barbara Channel. As an active menace to this vital gateway lies San Miguel Island, 23 miles due south of Point Conception. This desolate pile of lava towers, in places, to more than 800 feet.