Honda Point disaster

Honda Point disaster

Aerial view of the disaster area, showing all seven destroyers. Photographed from a plane assigned to USS Aroostook. The ships are Nicholas and S. P. Lee at the top left; Delphy, capsized and broken in the small cove at left; Young, capsized in left center; Chauncey, upright ahead of Young; Woodbury on the rocks in the right center; and Fuller on the rocks at right.
Date	September 8, 1923
Time	21:05 local
Location	Honda (Pedernales) Point, near Lompoc, Santa Barbara County, California, U.S.
Coordinates	34°36′11″N 120°38′43″W / 34.60306°N 120.64528°W / 34.60306; -120.64528
Casualties
23 dead[1]
Numerous injuries[2]

The Honda Point disaster was the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy ships in U.S. history.^[3] On the evening of September 8, 1923, seven destroyers, while traveling at 20 knots (37 km/h), ran aground at Honda Point (also known as Point Pedernales; the cliffs just off-shore called Devil's Jaw), a few miles from the northern side of the Santa Barbara Channel off Point Arguello on the Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County, California. Two other ships grounded, but were able to maneuver free off the rocks. Twenty-three sailors died in the disaster.