Click "I have a souvenir" from the accident,
if you have something other than what is described in the above paragraph; then describe
it in your email. Include your full name, home address, email address and telephone number
in your email. Do not send the item. The info you supply will be posted in the table
below.
| Photo
submitted by...... |
Description
supplied..... |
| Lt. Joe
Doe, DDD (Ret) |
I took
this picture on 9/10/23 when I heard about the accident on the radio. I was living and
working in Lompoc, California at the time. |
| Snow
White, Surf, California |
While
strolling along the beach at Pt. Honda on 6/16/31, I found a baby spoon and pusher,
engraved with the initials, K. I. H. It may have been on one of the destroyers. I've often
wondered who belonged to the initials K. I. H. |
Note: The
names and descriptions in the above table are fictitious examples
An email from Douglas S. Wright,
Captain, USN (Ret), revealed that his father, then Ensign William D. Wright, USN, was
aboard the SP Lee on September 8, 1923. Ensign Wright had just graduated from the US Naval
Academy three months prior and was on his maiden voyage when Squadron Eleven stranded on
the rocks at Point Honda.
After the accident, Ensign Wright
remained at the scene of the wrecks with a crew of sailors to retrieve bodies and guard
the ships. On September 21, 1923, he wrote a letter to his mother describing the accident
and his part in it.
Captain Wright gave us permission
to post his father's letter on the Point Honda Memorial web site. The scanned version of
the 10-page letter he zipped to me via email exceeded the capacity for this site so it was
painstakingly keyboarded with utmost care. Thank you for the contribution, Captain Wright.
An update from Captain Wright
revealed that his father had better luck for the remainder of his career and retired as a
Rear Admiral following WWII. Also, that his second son carries on the Navy tradition and
is currently a Lieutenant F-14 Tomcat pilot. Congratulations to the Wright family devoted
to keeping America safe.
San Diego Hotel
San Diego, Calif. 21 Sept. 1923
Dearest Mother,
I arrived here yesterday from Honda and was plenty glad
to get away from there because it is the dirtiest place I have ever seen.
On Saturday night the eighth the squadron composed of
18 destroyers was steaming down the coast in a heavy fog. We were in a column formation,
that is in one long line, the S.P. Lee being second in column. By some trick of fate we
were miles off our reckoning. I am not sure why, — a court of inquiry is trying
to dope that out now.
About nine o'clock I was in my state room preparing to
go to bed. I heard our engines reverse and our siren scream so I threw on my coat and
grabbed my life preserver. Before I could get out of my room I felt us hit. We slid past
the first rock we hit but before I could get topside we had crashed again. When I reached
the main deck we were heeling over to port and the stern was sinking. I ran to the fire
room which was fast filling and we got the word to secure.
All lights were out as the first hole we got was right
at the generator. The ship was listing over about 30° and it was impossible to launch a
boat on the high side and equally impossible on the low side on account of the terrific
surf. The seas were breaking all the way across the ship and one had to watch himself to
keep from being washed overboard.
Pretty soon the Captain gave the word to abandon ship.
The executive officer told me to get a line over to the beach which was only about fifty
feet away. The beach was a precipitous cliff about a hundred feet high. The sea was
running so high that no one could swim over without being dashed to death against the
rocks.
I got a life raft over and finally got a line secured
to some rocks at the base of the cliff. In the meantime they had gotten another one across
up forward.
We then ferried the men from the ship to the rocks in
the two life rafts. When we were all ashore it took us an hour to get up the cliff.
When we got up we heard the cries of men on the Delphy
the leading ship, which was broken in two. We worked to about 2 o'clock getting men off
her and the Young which turned over. The Young had ripped her starboard side open and
turned over in about 80 seconds. All her survivors were standing on the side of the ship
which was barely sticking up above water. They got ashore by a line to the Chauncey and
another line to the beach.
At dawn we saw there were three more on the rocks. Two
of them were against a rock about two hundred yards from the beach and another was just
off the port bow of the S.P. Lee. Those by the rock had gotten on the rocks and stayed all
night and the men on the Nicholas (just off the bow of the Lee) had spent the night in the
rigging. We got them ashore by a line Sunday morning.
Twenty three men were lost — three from the Delphy
and the rest from the Young. About a hundred were slightly injured.
At 4:30 p.m. Sunday the survivors less another officer,
myself and sixteen men left for San Diego. We guarded the ships and recovered bodies. A
salvaging party arrived about three or four days later and went to work but our duties
continued.
I did not take off the wet clothes I came ashore in for
60 hours and did not sleep more than two hours out of the twenty four for five days. The
worst thing about the wreck was the oil. The fuel oil tanks were broken and everything was
a sea of oil.
One poor fellow on the Delphy (James Pearson) was
knocked down when she hit, breaking both legs. He jumped over the side and was blinded by
the oil. When they fished him back aboard he was a raving maniac. They could not take him
across the slender line to the shore as he fought everyone who came near him.
Finally they lashed him aboard so they could come back and get him in the morning. In the
morning the Delphy with her lone maniac crew was in the cradle of the deep.
We had recovered 13 bodies before I left and I got so
used to handling gruesome, bloated, mangled and half eaten away corpses that (I) could be
an undertaker without the slightest sensation.
We are all attached to the base now and will probably
start putting new destroyers in commission. Pretty near all of us are witnesses at the
court of inquiry so there isn't much to do except wait around.
I got one letter from you and the note from the bank
but the rest is up at Honda and I will probably get it in a few days.
I recovered most of my stuff but lost a good deal at
that. I will get the money for it eventually, I suppose.
With worlds of love to all.
Devotedly,
Will
P.S. I wired you the night of the wreck but in the large volume of traffic
it was lost.
