12" U. S. Navy Spotlight Recovered from the Historic Honda Point Disaster Site

Description

This deck searchlight was found off the California coast at Honda Point, near where 7 U.S. Navy destroyers sank in heavy seas on the night of September 8th, 1923.  The treacherous seas were caused by
two factors: a severe local storm;
and
by the deadly and untimely arrival of huge waves and currents generated by a
large earthquake that had occurred in Japan just
several hours earlier. These warships of Destroyer Squadron Eleven lost 23 men in all, due mainly to the command officers' refusal to use their recently installed RDF (
Radio Direction Finder) to navigate, favoring, instead,
the traditional, and
in this case
truly ironic
, method of
dead reckoning
.  As a consequence of this navigational error,
all
seven
destroyers ran aground
on the treacherous stone outcroppings of the Woodbury Rocks, and would forever be remembered thereafter as the ships lost in
The Honda Point Disaster.