A lively true-life adventure/disaster story which proves hard to put down

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	• Destroyers On The Rocks: Seven Ships Lost Spencer Duckworth Cypress House, 2005 - 322 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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A lively true-life adventure/disaster story which proves hard to put down

In 1923 the U.S. navy's Destroyer Squadron 11 headed off to its home port of San Diego from San Francisco. Clear blue skies, mid-summer, and accompanied by a fleet of some thirteen destroyers packed with experienced officers and commanders. By day's end all seven would be stranded on the coast and lives and millions of dollars lost. DESTROYERS ON THE ROCKS: SEVEN SHIPS LOST is the vivid re-enactment of the disaster which holds mystery to this day: events, politics, and long-term effects are all surveyed in a lively true-life adventure/disaster story which proves hard to put down - even by those who aren't usually readers of military history. Very highly recommended!

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

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Blind Leading the Blind: A Leadership Case Study

Spencer Duckworth's new book, Destroyers on the Rocks: Seven Ships Lost, illuminates a relatively unknown blunder in naval history. While the celebrated attack on Pearl Harbor revealed errors of a strategic nature, the 1923 grounding of seven U.S. Navy destroyers off the South Central California coast resulted from errors of a tactical nature. To the typical landsman, this embarrassing and costly tragedy, which resulted in the loss of twenty-three men and seven warships, would appear to be an example of follow-the-leader that caused cascading problems. Actually destroyermen train extensively in tactical maneuvering as a means of employing their various weapon systems (guns and torpedoes in 1923) in wartime in an optimum way. Destroyers on the Rocks rather exposes the more serious flaw of the blind leading the blind.

If the lack of navigational professionalism and judgment of the squadron commander, Captain Edward H. Watson, and the flagship commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Donald Hunter, were the principal sources of this naval disaster, the heroism of scores of other officers and men after the grounding were fully in keeping with the finest traditions of the U.S. Navy. Given the hazardous sea conditions, the wind, the cold, the rocks, and the darkness, it is amazing that more men were not lost. This testifies to the importance of discipline, training, and leadership. Equally amazing was the large number of officers in those seven destroyers who later achieved flag rank (1 admiral, 4 vice admirals, and 9 rear admirals).

Spencer Duckworth was meticulous in his chronicling of this sad event. His own experience as a serious small-boat sailor gave him a credible perspective to retell this tale. Destroyers on the Rocks is replete with diagrams, photos, maps, and details involving the events leading up to the grounding, the fast-paced events as the destroyers crashed upon the rocks, the human struggles for survival, the heroic rescues, the Court of Inquiry, and the subsequent Court Martial. This insightful work should be required reading for all navigators, commanding officers, and squadron commanders in the U.S. Navy as well as for captains of business and those who aspire to positions of responsibility--all of whom need to possess judgment, professionalism, and leadership.

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