One hundred years ago on September 8 th the largest peacetime disaster of the U. S. Navy before Pearl Harbor occurred just up the Coast from Santa Barbara north of Point Conception known locally as Honda Point . On a cold moonless night in thick fog fourteen new ships of Destroyer Squadron 11 sailing at a record pace from San Francisco to San Diego under radio silence turned hard east into Santa Barbara Chanel or so they thought . Seven Destroyers and twenty three sailors were lost to the jagged shores . The famous Lee Abbott shares their story in his film Disaster At Devils Jaw . Adventures Club , Alive and Well , August 1 6 : 00 P. M. and I will be there !