Honda Point Disaster - Navigational Errors

Navigational Errors

The fourteen Clemson class destroyers of Destroyer Squadron Eleven formed up behind the flagship USS Delphy in column formation on their way from San Francisco Bay, through the Santa Barbara Channel, and on to San Diego. (Navy) Destroyer Squadron Eleven was on a twenty-four hour exercise run from northern California to southern California. The flagship USS Delphy, led by Captain Edward H. Watson, was responsible for the navigation of the fleet on their run down the California coast. As the USS Delphy steamed down the coastline, poor visibility ensured that the navigators aboard the USS Delphy would be navigating by the age-old technique of dead reckoning. This meant that the ship was navigating by using estimation of speed and heading in order to determine position based on chart work. The navigators aboard USS Delphy were also using RDF, or radio direction finding, transmitted from a station at Point Arguello. The RDF technology transmitted bearings to the USS Delphy but the technology was new and therefore dismissed as a reliable source for navigation. The USS Delphy was then ordered to turn east into the Santa Barbara Channel. However, the actual position of the ship was actually a number of miles northeast of where the navigators believed it to be based on dead reckoning. This error of navigation placed the fleet directly in the path of the treacherous stretch of coastline known as Honda Point.