- Based on the largest peacetime naval disaster, this gripping documentary explores the fatal night of September 8, 1923, when seven speeding destroyers of the U.S. Navy crashed into the ragged California coastline, having ignored all signs of their impending doom. Reconstructing the human factors that led to this monumental shipwreck and the life-saving lessons that can be drawn from it, "Disaster at Devil's Jaw" is sure to excite naval experts, maritime enthusiasts, and general audiences.
- A century ago, on a moonless, stormy California night dripping with fog so thick the sailors said seagulls could walk on it, US Naval Destroyer Squadron 11 was blindly racing to San Diego to feed the ego of a Captain seeking accolades. What he achieved instead, was the greatest peacetime naval disaster before Pearl Harbor. Navigating by only Dead Reckoning in a time before electronics, the order was given to turn hard to port by 90 degrees around Point Conception and into the Santa Barbara Channel - only they were a mile too soon. Running at top speed in battle formation, the tailgating ships rammed into the jagged Central California Coast, and each other, like a pile up on the freeway. The place is known as "The Graveyard of the Pacific", local fishermen call it "Honda Point", but to Spanish explorers it was known as "La Quijada del Diablo" ...the Devil's Jaw. In less than ten minutes on September 8th 1923, 7 elite class Destroyers and 23 Souls...were lost. In the military tribunal that followed, most of the Captains and the lead navigator were brought up for court martial. In the end, Commander Edward H. Watson in the lead ship, took full responsibility for ordering the following Captains to strickly follow his lead - into doom. He was Court Martialed, along with the lead Navigator Edward Watson who's hubris in not listening to doubtful voices contributed to the much too early turn. Using interviews with current and retired Naval personel from several Admirals to Jr. Officers, with contributions from several maritime museums and historians, plus interviews with direct descendants of those on board, many of whom went on to serve in WWII. This was the greatest peacetime disaster in U.S. Naval History before Pearl Harbor, and this film asks... Why?
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