It is generally assumed that the Great Kanto Earthquake, which struck shortly before midday on 1st September 1923, was centred on the city of Tokyo when in fact its epicenter was a hundred kilometres to the southeast under Sagami Bay. As a result, the material damage caused by the earthquake was significantly worse in Kanagawa Prefecture than in Tokyo Prefecture. While the majority of the estimated 100,000 deaths occurred in the capital, most of them fire-related, the port cities of Yokohama and Yokosuka experienced the greater of the earthquake’s primary effects – ground-shaking, landslides and tsunamis.
Both were effectively turned to rubble. In Yokohama, Japan’s largest commercial port, the quake led to chaotic scenes in the harbor, with the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Australia, only minutes from departure, being imperiled by the sudden collapse of the dock and a collision with a nearby freighter. Meanwhile, in the naval port of Yokosuka, the collapse of numerous dockyard buildings resulted in more than 50 deaths and as many serious injuries, while a leak of 80,000 tons of heavy oil spread fire across the harbor towards where the liner was berthed. Fortunately, no active navy ships were lost in the disaster, but the incomplete hull of the battleship Amagi, then undergoing conversion to an aircraft carrier, was damaged beyond repair, as were the hulls of the light crusier Naka and two submarines.
Initial relief operations fell to the Japanese navy, warships ferrying stores and survivors between Tokyo and Yokohama; both completely cut off by land, and outlying cities. On the authority of the British consul, the Empress of Australia also took part in initial rescue operations, serving as a temporary evacuation point. As soon as news reached the America, the order was given for units of the US Navy’s Asiatic Fleet then based in China, to render immediate assistance.
Among those first to arrive was the old cruiser USS Huron, carrying its commander-in-chief, Edwin Anderson Jnr., and a flotilla of Clemson Class destroyers led by the USS Stewart, designated DesRon 38.[1] While initially suspicious, the Japanese government later praised the efforts of the Americans for their ‘unflagging zeal and efficiency’. However, while one destroyer flotilla of the US Navy was distinguishing itself in the aftermath of disaster on one side of the Pacific, another flotilla made up of the same class of warships was about to meet its own ignominious disaster on the other side, at a place known as Point Honda.
The Clemson Class was one of two near-identical destroyer classes that went into mass production towards the end of World War I, resulting in total in more than 250 vessels. These ‘Flush-deckers’, meaning they lacked raised forecastles or quarterdecks, had a distinctive arrangement of four narrow smokestacks, giving rise to their other nickname of ‘four-stackers’. The Clemson Class had a marginally greater range than the preceding Wickes Class and a slightly reduced turning circle.
All 156 Clemsons were commissioned too late to see service in the Great War. Immediately post-war these ships operated in squadrons of up to eighteen units called ‘DesRons’. Each DesRon was subdivided into divisions called DesDiv, each led by their own division commander. DesRons 11 and 12 were the two squadrons attached to the US ‘Battle Fleet’, based on America’s Pacific coast as a counter to the rising naval threat of Japan.
While DesRon 38 was being called to assist relief operations in Japan, DesRons 11 and 12 were making their way down the American west coast to their home base in San Diego after Battle Fleet training exercises in Puget Sound, Washington State. DesRon 11 was commanded by Captain Edward H. Watson. An experienced seaman, Watson had participated in naval operations during the Spanish-American War. He had received the Navy Cross for his ‘exceptionally meritorious service’ during World War One, although his duties had primarily been conducting training cruises on the old battleship USS Alabama in Chesapeake Bay. Shortly afterwards he had been sent to Japan as the US government’s naval attaché, a diplomatic post he held until May 1922. Watson’s counterpart in DesRon 12 was Captain James H. Tomb. Another recipient of the Navy Cross, Tomb had been involved in the laying of the North Sea Mine Barrage towards the end of the War.
On 7th September 1923, the two destroyer squadrons dropped anchor in San Francisco, where they received general orders for the final leg of the journey from Battle Fleet destroyer squadron commander Rear Admiral Sumner Kittelle. Post-war economizing had led the Navy to restrict warship speeds to a maximum of 15kts. For the final leg, however, Kittelle authorized his subordinates to make a 20kt test run of their engines. This information appears to have been received differently by each commander. Whereas Tomb saw it as a permission, Watson interpreted it as a requirement. This was one of several factors that when combined would lead to disaster for DesRon 11.
The trip south towards San Diego involved a passage through the Santa Barbara Channel. This stretch of water separated the California coast from a disparate group of islands called The Channel Islands. The most northerly of this archipelago, which includes Hollywood studio favorite Santa Catalina, is San Miguel. Northwest of San Miguel is a point where the coast turns about 90 degrees; Point Arguello, otherwise known as Honda Point. This stretch of coastline was well known to be hazardous not just in terms of geography but also sea conditions, having been named ‘La Quijada del Diablo’, or ‘The Devil’s Jaw’ by early Spanish explorers. One of its most famous victims had been the Vanderbilt steamship USS Yankee Dollar, which had been wrecked during the Gold Rush era. Consequently a series of lighthouses had been built to provide visual checkpoints both day and night.
14 units of DesRon 11 left San Francisco in the early morning of 8th September, three having sailed earlier with separate orders, one being laid up for repairs. Watson had his flag in the USS Delphy, which was captained by Commander Donald T. Hunter. Hunter was an experienced navigator who’d taught the discipline at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. The ship also carried its own navigator, a junior lieutenant by the name of Lawrence Blodgett.
Delphy was equipped with the latest in navigational aids, a technology known as radio direction finding (RDF). RDF allowed ships to fix their position in a straight line with a land-based receiving station. By triangulating this fix with one from another station, an exact coordinate could be found. Aside from RDF and visual checkpoints, there were two other less reliable methods of fixing a ship’s position, dead reckoning (DR) and depth soundings. The former was a projection from a ship’s previous verified position based on the revolutions of its propellers and estimations of deviations by wind and currents.
Bow Creek to Anatahan 