Nostalgia & History > Disaster at Honda - The Southern Pacific Bulletin_, 12:

Subject: Disaster at Honda (long)
Author: John Snyder [SMTP:John_Snyder@macnexus.org] at DISAHUB
Date: 9/23/98 10:58 AM

http://meteora.ucsd.edu/wx_pages/stuff/southern_pacific.txt

For those who expressed interest in the article that appeared in the Southern
Pacific Bulletin at the time of the grounding at Honda, here it is:

S.P. Men Save Lives In Naval Tragedy, _The Southern Pacific Bulletin_,
12:10, December 1923.

Southern Pacific men and women will be interested to know that their
comrades on the Coast Division did splendid work in saving lives and giving
general relief when seven destroyers of the United States navy were wrecked,
the evening of September 8, on the jagged rocks of Honda, Calif., 63 miles
north of Santa Barbara.

Twenty-three lives were lost in the wrecks and nineteen men were injured.
The timely assistance of Southern Pacific men undoubtedly prevented a greater
death toll.

One woman, Mrs. C.L. Atkins, wife of the third trick operator at Surf will
be remembered for many years by the navy men for her fine work in caring for
the survivors, making them comfortable, giving them coffee, and doing other
acts of kindness. Mrs. Atkins mothered the boys for nearly twenty-four
hours without a rest.

The destroyers, part of a flotilla speeding south to San Diego, the
destroyer base, were off their course and crashed head on into the rocks, one
after another piling up before warning by the leaders could be given. There
was a heavy fog all along the coast at the time. The destroyers wrecked were
the Delphy, Young, S.P. Lee, Nicholas, Woodbury, Chauncey and Fuller. The
destroyer squadron was under the command of Captain Edward H. Watson.

The destroyers were wrecked at a point about a quarter of a mile from the
Southern Pacific line and opposite the Honda section house. At 8:46p.m. the
evening of September 8, John Giorvas, section foreman at Honda heard a crash
and two minutes later heard another. He ran to the second story of his home
and looking out of the window saw a light near shore. Taking his sixteen men
he went to the beach and there saw a destroyer, later found to be the
Chauncey, on the rocks. The shouts of the crew could be heard but no one
could be seen. Giorvas ran back to the section house and telephoned to the
operator at Surf, reporting the wreck. Returning to the beach he found that
two more vessels were on the rocks and a little later discovered two more.
It was not until towards morning that it was found that seven ships, all
told, had been wrecked.

Giorvas kept the operator at Surf informed of developments and acted quickly
to get men from the destroyers ashore. In the meantime the information had
been conveyed to Trainmaster T.J. Foley at San Luis Obispo who immediately
made arrangements for the sending of doctors, surgical supplies, food,
blankets, clothing, etc., to the scene of the wreck. He instructed the steam
shovel gang under Foreman Tobin and the fence gang under Foreman Motis to
proceed at once to Honda and render whatever assistance they could. Foley
loaded the supplies and stretchers on the baggage car of the southbound Lark
and went himself to Honda.

Section Forman Giorvas, after reporting the wreck, threw a rope to the
Delphy, which was the closest ship and the crew connected a heavy line which
was pulled ashore. The line was lashed fast and some of the crew then started
ashore.

While Mr. Foley was making necessary arrangements at San Luis Obispo,
Operator W. Pittman at Surf had notified two doctors who were brought to
Honda in a section motor car by W.J. Maes, General Foreman, who had been
notified by Giorvas. Maes also brought rope, pulleys and tools. Signal
Maintainer Ace Reed followed in his motor. These men with the steam shovel
and fence gangs worked with might and main to get the men ashore from the
wrecked ships, giving them first aid, and building fires to keep them
warm.

Foreman Tobin's knowledge of the handling of rope and tackle was especially
valuable. In rescuing some of the men washed off the ships Reed and Tobin
plunged into the water to reach them. A high sea was running at the time,
making rescue work difficult. As injured men were landed they were taken to
the section house. Fourteen were sent to Santa Barbara on the Sunset Limited
that morning.

Lineman Maxwell, Dispatcher Watts, C. Benoit, secretary to Superintendent
F.M. Worthington of the Coast Division, and Operator Pittman came over from
Surf. They carried telegraph material from Honda to the section house and
opened telegraphic communication.

Trainmaster Foley, on arriving at Honda reported to Captain Watson, turning
over the supplies and offering every assistance. With the arrival of Lineman
Pierce, wires were cut in both upstairs and downstairs in the section house
for the use of Western Union operators who arrived later in the day.

Owing to the fog conditions communication was very difficult and during the
early morning hours Southern Pacific wires were the only means of
communication from the wreck to the outside world. The Telegraph Department
men did fine work in getting messages through. Operator Pittman at Surf is
given special commendation by Trainmaster Foley for the efforts he made to
relay information through to San Luis Obispo from Honda before they were able
to get the telegraph wires open. Extra Telegrapher J.M. Brom did good work at
Honda.

At San Francisco A. Keller, Night Chief Dispatcher was kept busy trying to
maintain communication with the south, attending to his regular duties,
getting messages to company officials, etc. He did good work, in spite of
difficulties in notifying the navy yard officers at Mare Island, the
Merchants Exchange at San Francisco and other people interested. It was at
first thought that the initial reports referred to the wreck of the 'Cuba',
a merchant ship which had been wrecked farther down the coast.

Trainmaster Foley arranged for a special train to take the crews of the
destroyers to San Diego, and with the Red Cross at Santa Barbara for the
feeding of the men on their arrival at that point. The train ran through to
San Diego, from Los Angeles over the Santa Fe, without change of equipment.
The cars in the train were all well heated on their arrival at Honda so that
the men were made comfortable after their long exposure.

Forty-three Southern Pacific employes [sic] all told, gathered at the scene
of the wreck and worked without thought of their own fatigue in doing
whatever they could to asist [sic] the navy men.

And ranking high in the list of those who did much in this work must be
mentioned Mrs. Atkins, or 'Ma Atkins' as the sailors called her, with her
coffee, her help in dressing wounds and her general willingness to do
anything that would make the 'boys' comfortable.


***********************************************************
Visit the Mahan Naval History Discussion List WebSite at:
http://www.microworks.com/mahan
for info on Subscribing/Unsubscribing and Digest and
Links to other Sites of Naval Interest
***********************************************************

If I am not mistaken, the Navy disaster at Hondo changed naval destroyer tactics forever. Somewhere in my personal library is a history book written that covers the details of this disaster. I believe the lead destroyer made the initial wrong turn heading into the Santa Barbara channel and all other destroyers simply followed the leader as was the tactic in effect at the time.

Marty Harrison
Knob Noster, MO

You are correct. John Signor covered this disater briefly in his "Coast Line" book. The ships simply followed the leader, even though some crew felt it was the wrong course to take, but who is going to argue with authority?

Dave

I've never seen it and not sure if it's true, but I was told
that at certain conditions of very low tides, the "bones" of
some of the wrecked ships can still be seen? The place is a
very treacherous part of the ocean, due to the violent converging
currents, tides and sharp rocks. Small boaters: beware of getting
caught up in here!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/13 10:04 by OldPorter.

Thank you for sharing this, I had forgotten all about this incident. Here are a couple pics I found online searching for images. Very treacherous coastline, you can see the SP line in the google image.
—espee4ever

Edit: Added Destroyer Rock image from Google Earth.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/13 15:27 by espee4ever.

---

---

---

During my first tour of duty assigned to Vandenberg AFB, I do remember going out to Hondo and seeing what certainly looked like the remains of a ship.

Marty Harrison
Knob Noster, MO

I remember seeing fragments of the wreckage when traveling south on the Daylight in 1959. One story about the disaster was that the radio operator or radio navigator on the flagship reported that his radio direction finding equipment had showed the ship's position was many miles north of where the traditional navigation had indicated, and tried to convince the officers of this, but the senior men apparently didn't trust the new apparatus, much to their sorrow. Visitors to the store/restaurant at the Jalama Beach campground will see photos of the 1923 event, which was about a dozen miles north of there. Back in 2004, my wife and I took an ocean cruise from Vancouver to San Pedro, and one of the significant point was sailing (actually motoring) south along the coast of California and making a noticeable turn to the port after passing Point Concepcion. It was afternoon, the weather was fine, and we had the advantage of 70 years of advances in navigation technology, but I still thought of the US Navy's taking the turn too soon.

Yes, good photos at the Jalama Store. My dad said it was known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific". In the early days of WW2 he was patrolling the beach, camped at Jalama, while in the Coast Guard. His dad, (my grandfather)would drop off fresh baked cakes and cookies to the guys at the camp. He was a Hoghead, and would drop the items off as he went by Jalama Beach. He set up a whistle code to let the guys know to run up to the tracks to get the goodies. My grandmother would bake for days before he made a 'coast' run, her own part of the war effort!

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

I too was stationed at VAFB from 1973-77, and remember going to what was called, "Destroyer Rock." At that time, there was a portion of a ship's hull with the skeleton framework on the beach/rocks. It was then that I heard about the story of this naval disaster. Also, at the base of the large trestle near here, there was what appeared to be a section of boxcar roof with the running board buried in the sand. A "victim" of a strong wind gust in the early days?

Was just on the base this Friday and Saturday at the location. There's a small marker overlooking the site. Was there within 30 minutes of low tide on both days and didn't see any remnants. It's a ruggedly beautiful place. Sure wish an SP streamliner in daylight colors would still be running that route.

A very interesting bit of history Psurveyor. Thanks for sharing.