[daepp]

[QUOTE=GH85Carrera;12089996]

An aerial view of the Honda Point disaster area #otd, showing all seven destroyers that ran aground during the night of 8 September 1923. Photographed from a plane assigned to USS Aroostook CM-3. Ships are: USS Nicholas DD-311, in the upper left; USS S.P. Lee DD-310, astern of Nicholas; USS Delphy DD-261, capsized in the left center; USS Young DD-312, capsized in the center of the view; USS Chauncey DD-296, upright ahead of Young; USS Woodbury DD-309 on the rocks in the center; and USS Fuller DD-297, in the lower center. The Southern Pacific Railway's Honda Station is in the upper left.

I've been there quite a few times - it's near some pretty treacherous waters called Devil's Jawbone. Largest peacetime disaster for the US Navy ever - seven destroyers (all quite new) who were doing 20+ knots, followed one another onto the rocks there. And if not for the good citizens of nearby Lompoc hearing the sounds of the crash, many more would have died. Instead the mounted a huge rescue with ropes and ladders to save as many of the sailors as possible. Some suggest the death toll would have been closer to 1000 rather than the 23 who actually perished.

Some shots I've taken over the years: