Tragedy at Honda Point

Title: Tragedy at Honda Point
Year: 2012
Artist: Ann Thompson Lompoc, Ca
Location: On the west wall of City Fire Station at 120 South G St.

Description: The tragedy at Honda Point is the “Worst Peacetime Navigational Disaster” in U.S. Naval history. Commodore Edward H. Watson gave the order to turn too soon, because he had not taken into account the strong currents and large swells that were a result of a severe earthquake in Japan a week earlier. He believed that, in the darkness and heavy fog he was following the coastline and safely guiding his squadron into the Santa Barbara Channel. As a result, at 9:00 P.M. on September 8, 1923 seven of fourteen ships were lost, along with 23 men’s lives, at Honda Point, just off the coast of Vandenberg Air Force Base.