The FReeper Foxhole Profiles The Honda Point Disaster (9/8/1923) - September 9th, 2005

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/ev-1920s/ev-1923/hondapt.htm ^

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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Honda Point Disaster, 8 September 1923


FULL SIZE VIEW

The Navy's Greatest Navigational Tragedy



The Navy's greatest navigational tragedy took place in September 1923 at an isolated California coastal headland locally known as Honda Point. Officially called Point Pedernales, Honda is a few miles from the northern entrance of the heavily-traveled Santa Barbara Channel. Completely exposed to wind and wave, and often obscured by fog, this rocky shore has claimed many vessels, but never more at one stroke than at about 9 PM on the dark evening of 8 September 1923, when seven nearly new U.S. Navy destroyers and twenty-three lives were lost there.


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Just over twelve hours earlier Destroyer Squadron ELEVEN left San Francisco Bay and formed up for a morning of combat maneuvers. In an important test of engineering efficiency, this was followed by a twenty-knot run south, including a night passage through the Santa Barbara Channel. In late afternoon the fourteen destroyers fell into column formation, led by their flagship, USS Delphy. Poor visibility ensured that squadron commander Captain Edward H. Watson and two other experienced navigators on board Delphy had to work largely by the time-honored, if imprecise, technique of dead reckoning. Soundings could not be taken at twenty knots, but they checked their chartwork against bearings obtained from the radio direction finding (RDF) station at Point Arguello, a few miles south of Honda. At the time they expected to turn into the Channel, the Point Arguello station reported they were still to the northward. However, RDF was still new and not completely trusted, so this information was discounted, and DesRon 11 was ordered to turn eastward, with each ship following Delphy.


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However, the Squadron was actually several miles north, and further east, than Delphy's navigators believed. It was very dark, and almost immediately the ships entered a dense fog. About five minutes after making her turn, Delphy slammed into the Honda shore and stuck fast. A few hundred yards astern, USS S.P. Lee saw the flagship's sudden stop and turned sharply to port, but quickly struck the hidden coast to the north of Delphy. Following her, USS Young had no time to turn before she ripped her hull open on submerged rocks, came to a stop just south of Delphy and rapidly turned over on her starboard side. The next two destroyers in line, Woodbury and Nicholas, turned right and left respectively, but also hit the rocks. Steaming behind them, USS Farragut backed away with relatively minor damage, USS Fuller piled up near Woodbury, USS Percival and Somers both narrowly evaded the catastrophe, but USS Chauncey tried to rescue the men clinging to the capsized Young and herself went aground nearby. The last four destroyers, Kennedy, Paul Hamilton, Stoddert and Thompson successfully turned clear of the coast and were unharmed. In the darkness and fog enveloping the seven stranded ships, several hundred crewmen were suddenly thrown into a battle for survival against crashing waves and a hostile shore.


FULL SIZE VIEW

For more images related to the September 1923 Honda Point Disaster, see:

Honda Point Disaster -- Surface Views of the Southern Wrecks;

Honda Point Disaster -- Surface Views of the Northern Wrecks;

Honda Point Disaster -- Later Views of the Wrecks.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[Professional Engineer]

Hi miss Feather

[Professional Engineer]

I like the "shield" at her bow. Very cool.

[Professional Engineer]

Dunno. A little bird told me?

[Professional Engineer]

Here's a pic that Samwise and P.E. might enjoy.

I have a set of plans stored away to scratch build a P-38 of about that same size.

[Valin]

then I saw the gallon jug and went Ohhhhh

I was on a photo tour in the west of Ireland, at a place called Ballintuber Abby. I sent the better part of an hour setting a photograph of the altar, when I got home developed the negatives made contact prints and saw there was the light panel right out in the open for all the world to see. These things happen.

[Iris7]

Sounds like black and white. The shadows can be wonderful.

What sort of camera?

What a great trip.

[Valin]

I have a Wista 4x5 field camera, and a 125mm Goltz-Dagor lens.
I keep looking for a "cheap" digital scanning back. As since I moved into an apt. I have no darkroom and have gone digital. I like but miss getting my have on the print, sometimes it's hard to get used to have a piece of glass between me and the image.

[Wneighbor]

Happy

Anniversary

Professional Engineer

and

Msdrby

September 11, 2005

[Iris7]

Serious equipment, although I have no idea about Goltz-Dagor lenses!

Have thought about a view camera for many years, ever since I attempted some portraits and pictures of flowers. For flowers you want depth of field in full sun, usually. I like the flower to fill the frame. Sky color, sun, shadow, got to catch that fluorescence. Watch very closely the changing colors. I never was good at it. Left more than a few blooms all wired up to shreds, though.

Wanted to do portraiture in the forties style, deep dodged shadows, good lighting easy and quick to change, in black and white. You just cannot do it with color or computer. Well, I don't know about computer.

Thinking about a digital to supplement the old Nikon, use for snapshots of people in public places. Would need a lenses covering 50mm to 300mm (more would be nice) if we were talking about 35mm format. Moderate resolution is OK.

Likely to get my nose broken!! Again! Looking at people in Wal-Mart last night, be good photos if you lived!

[Soaring Feather]

Happy Anniversary PE and msdrby!

[snippy_about_it]

Captain Edward H. Watson, USN, (1874-1942)
Edward Howe Watson was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, on 28 February 1874, the son of Commander John Crittendon Watson, USN. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1895 and had sea duty in several ships during the rest of the decade, including Spanish-American War service on board USS Detroit. Watson had diverse assignments over the next dozen years, among them duty as aide to flag officers, recruiting work, and service in battleships, cruisers and other vessels. Command of the storeship Celtic in 1912-13 was followed by attendence at the Naval War College, duty as Executive Officer of the battleship Utah and as Commanding Officer of the gunboat Wheeling.

Watson spent most of World War I in command of the transport Madawaska and battleship Alabama, receiving the Navy Cross for his "exceptionally meritorious service" in the latter. In March 1919, he became U.S. Naval Attache in Japan, remaining in that post until May 1922. In July of that year, he took command of Destroyer Squadron ELEVEN, based on the West Coast. On 8 September 1923, navigation errors on his flagship resulted in the loss of seven of the squadron's destroyers through stranding on the rocky coast at Honda Point, California. Captain Watson energetically organized rescue and survival measures for the several hundred shipwrecked Sailors and subsequently took full responsibility for the actions that led to the tragedy.

Though the ensuing court martial resulted in the loss of all chance for further promotion, Captain Watson's willing acceptance of command responsibility and his display of great personal character in a situation of considerable adversity were widely admired in and out of the Naval Service. He was subsequently assigned to duty as Assistant Commandant of the Fourteenth Naval District, in Hawaii, remaining there until he left active duty in November 1929. In retirement, Watson resided in New York and Jamestown, Rhode Island, and retained an active interest in Japanese affairs. Captain Edward H. Watson died in Brooklyn, New York, on 7 January 1942.

[Valin]

I have a small problem with portraits...I've never made a good one. :-) I can show people how, but (for whatever reason) I just can't do it. By good there was an artist named Paul Strand who reached into his subjects and pulled there souls out...just marvelous!

The thing about zoom lens is the wider the ratio the lower the resolution. With modern designed lens this problem has benn lessened. I know that with digital cameras unless you go waaaay up in price they come with zoom lens, I've got an Olympus E-10 and it's got an 35-140 lens.
Personal preference, I don't like them, they make you lazy, but I admit they are useful.
But then I really really love large format cameras you can REALLY see what you're shooting, and because they are a pain to setup and use they make you really see not just look (if you know what I mean).

As far as B/W goes with any good editing program it's pretty easy to do I use photoshop 6.0 but any good program will work.


Here's a couple of good places to look

http://www.shortcourses.com/

http://www.ultimateslr.com/

http://www.zonezero.com/

http://www.dpreview.com/

And of course there are a couple of billion photo blogs out there.



The best advise I could give you (or anyone) is "writers write, painters paint, photographer make photographs".
When I was going to school I had to turn in 15 rolls with contact prints, and 4 8x10 prints a week.