Inquiry

A naval court of inquiry in session at San Diego took testimony for several days on the accident which sent seven destroyers ashore on Point Arguello (TIME, Sept. 17, Sept. 24). Twelve men were named as "interested parties" or defendants, and a thirteenth was added to the group when the navigating officer of the destroyer Delphy was questioned. In this way the commanding officers, division commanders and squadron commanders of the vessels wrecked were all named as defendants, and exempted from testifying. There was a prospect that if other officers were questioned they, too, might be named. In this way the almost ludicrous situation came about, in which all the important witnesses were named as " interested parties" and exempted from testifying.

At this point the 13 defendants offered to waive their rights and testify. Admiral William V. Pratt characterized the offer as " worthy of the best traditions of the Navy " The defendants will be questioned as the inquiry proceeds. The following chief points were brought out:

1) That the destroyers were proceeding at 20 knots.

2) That the visibility was not nearly so bad as reported in the press. Of two witnesses questioned, one testified that shortly before the wreck the lights of five destroyers following in column had been visible from the Delphy; the other that the lights of eight destroyers had been visible.

3) That no abnormal currents were noticeable off Point Arguello on the day following the wreck. This was testified by Captain N. E. Cousins of the liner Ruth Alexander, accustomed to navigating Pacific coastal waters for 30 years.

4) That confusion over radio compass bearings sent to the wrecked ships was probably the cause of the wreck. Captain Cousins testified that, although in foggy weather he took radio compass directions, he did not rely on them. "They are wrong," he declared, "as often as they are right." The first officer of the steamer Arizonan also telegraphed to San Diego that he had had two sets of radio bearings given to his ship about two weeks before the wreck which if not disregarded would have put his ship ashore within a few miles of the scene of the disaster under investigation. Those officers of the destroyer squadron who testified declared that the radio bearings received from the Point Arguello station were apparently contradictory, and that therefore they had judged them wrong and followed their own reckoning. Five minutes after the course of the vessels had been changed in this belief the vessels went aground. The Point Arguello radio station presented its log, contradicting many of the statements of the destroyer officers.