“On the night of 8 September, 1923, the ships of Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 11 were on a 24 hour run from San Francisco to San Diego, cruising at 20 knots. The flagship, USS Delphy (DD 261) was in the lead, followed by Destroyer Divisions 33, 31 and 32; ships as follows:
DesDiv 33: S. P. Lee (DD 310), Young (DD 312), Woodbury (DD 309), Nicholas (DD 311
DesDiv 31:Farragut (DD 300), Fuller (DD 297), Percival (DD 298), Somers (DD 301), Chauncey (DD 296)
DesDiv 32: Kennedy (DD 306), Paul Hamilton (DD 307), Stoddert (DD 302), Thompson (DD 305)”
Those in bold ran aground and were sunk. All ships involved Wickes/Clemson-class destroyers. The ships turned east to course 095, supposedly heading into the Santa Barbara Channel, at 21:00. Based solely on dead reckoning, Captain Watson ordered the fleet to turn east into the Santa Barbara Channel. However, the Delphy was actually several miles northeast of where they thought they were. This error caused the ships to run aground on Honda Point. Alongside numerous injuries, the court martial of each captain, and the wrecking of seven destroyers was 23 dead sailors.
