Talk:Honda Point disaster

Earthquake and currents

"The main cause of the navigational errors experienced by the crew of the USS Delphy can be attributed to the earthquake in Japan...seven days before..." Really? I understand that a tsunami takes 3-12 hours to travel from one part of the Pacific to another (http://www.tsunami.noaa.gov/warning_system_works.html); probably ten or so hours from Japan to California. I think the tsunami dissipates within a matter of hours (or less). So for its effects to still be felt seven days later seems unlikely, to put it mildly. So I think the notion that there were strong currents left over from an earthquake/ tsunami is far fetched, and perhaps a case of the people at fault stretching for an excuse.

Of course, this is "original research" on my part. Is there any oceanographer out there who has weighed in on this? Apparently the Court was skeptical of this reasoning as well: "The Court stated in its third opinion that no unusual current conditions existed." (http://www.pointhondamemorial.org/research/, citing the Court's findings). Mcswell (talk) 00:05, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

I'm not an oceanographer, but I think you're correct - I believe the person who mentioned the "tsunami effect" in the investigation was LCdr Hunter, Delphy's captain, who was also acting as the squadron navigator. Riiight...GMan552 (talk) 20:43, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Captain or commodore?

The article variously lists Edward Watson as a captain & a commodore. Which is it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.211.32.63 (talk) 11:24, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

It is realy simple, comodore was his actual rank, but was called captain because he was comanding his ship too (and yes, for small TF one person can be booth commader of flag ship and leader of TF). And anyone who comand ship is called independed of his actual rank, if it is leutnant or admiral. But admiral comanding single ship will be extremly rare, they are for leading TFs. And captains of ships are normaly called skippers :).Czert2 (talk) 19:11, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Other way around-his rank was captain, but as commander of a destroyer squadron his title was commodore. Watson was not the CO of his flagship either. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.137.228.161 (talk) 08:49, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

Agreed - Captain Watson was Commodore of DesRon 11, and flew his flag on Delphy. The captain of Delphy was LCdr Donald Hunter, who also was acting as squadron navigator, overriding his own ship's navigator, Lt (j.g.) Lawrence Blodgett. Hunter had been a navigation instructor at the US Naval Academy, but he had no experience with the new technology of radio direction finding (RDF). Please see https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2010/february/naval-tragedys-chain-errors GMan552 (talk) 20:43, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

Rewrite needed

The three sections titled "Incident", "Navigational errors" and "Ocean Conditions" need to be combined, as they all discuss the same thing. I'll help as able, but others are welcome as well. GMan552 (talk) 20:43, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

@GMan552:, I agree. I added some references. Fettlemap (talk) 13:31, 6 September 2019 (UTC)

News revival

The disaster was covered in The Los Angeles Times yesterday [1]. ☆ Bri (talk) 23:02, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

Already added. Fettlemap (talk) 23:53, 7 September 2019 (UTC)