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Show mo rass BEARKIG vnoriG lie SAYS No Ship in Squadron Wu Sailing Steady CourM or Making Steady Speed, He Asserts at Hearing COULD NOT CHECK PROPELLOR TURNS RererM Bearing Coincided Coincid-ed With Delphy. Dead Reckoning, Causing Belief Be-lief in Turning East BAH D1EOO. Cel.. Bept tl (By A, P.) Lieutenant Commander Donald T. Hunter, commanding officer of-ficer of the United Btalea ehlp Del-phy, Del-phy, took the wltneea stand today In the naval Inquiry of the disaster which coat seven ahlpa and twenty-three twenty-three live September I off Point Honda, Cal. Th Delphy led the destroyer squadron on th rocks. Hunter waa turned over to counsel coun-sel for the other defendant for queetlonlng and waa aaked to describe de-scribe fhe method employed In navigating the Dolphf from the tlm ah left Ban treaclse on the morning of fteptember I to the mo ment when shs ted the Eleventh 4a-stroysr 4a-stroysr squadron onto . tho rocks near Point Atwuello. At no tlm between their d pax-tor pax-tor from Ban Francisco to- their arrival at a position off Pldgeon Point, tho witness said, wag sny wag any ship In th squadron steering a steady eoura or making a steady speed. Consequently, It waa Impoaalble h aa'd, to check with arnrry xbm ro m Ions pr mtnula f t hr-ir prOjl,orj, aUhouih lhy hi their ttmai of alstRm t coid n lJts l svotutWns rounu a COMPASS REAftlNOft WRONQ. Th Ielphy'a commander thn told of confrnias with the ahlpa navigator; of thvir atimati as to the effect of currenta likely to he encountered to the south, of the distance which one could see at that time, ohout two ml lea; and then of radio rompasa heart ne from Point ArguIlo, whlrh were "obviously wrong;. In that th?y placed us to tho southwest when w wer still far to- the north of th point." Thta waa at 1:11 p m., he said, about seven hours befor th wreck. Th Delphy finally aaked for a re-vera re-vera bearing from point Arguello and obtained It, he added, this bearing bear-ing showing them far to th north of th point. wjv, vii ii im minu VI mil Obviously Insccurate bearing waa to convince him that llUle weight could be attached to direction signals sig-nals from Point Arguello. Th witness than want Into va-rloua va-rloua details of th Itelphya navigation navi-gation on that day. Indicating on a chart the poeltlona to which he referred. re-ferred. Between f and f o'clock that night, hs went on, three radio romps rom-ps as bearings were recelvad which coincided roughly with bis dead . reckoning. In that they showed him going toward Arguello light; but at 1ft o'clock, when he waa sure ths ship was sooth of Point Ar.rue.Uo, another bearing was received indicating indi-cating that the I)phy was stilt some distance north of the point. GETS RIVEMK BEARING. So a me aaafe waa sent to the radio ra-dio com pa aa station, he said, saying say-ing "We are to the southward; give us reciprocal (reverse) bearing." and the requested reverse bearing waa sent; this bearing coincided with the Delphy's dead reckoning snd apparently Justifying the wltneea' wlt-neea' belief that his ship waa already al-ready south of ths point and ready to turn east into banta Barbara channel. "Now I understand that the radio ra-dio man on duty at Point Arguello st the time has teat If led that no such reverse bearing waa obtained by me peraonaJly st 1:16, and by the two radio chiefs aboard ths Delphy. "I want also to make clear that T personally went to th office of 1 the communications superintendent I of the eleventh naval district and I found on file a record showing thst I Point Arguello bad sent such a bearing st, I: IS, although such a record does not appear on the log I ol the Point Arguello station Itself. "And finally I want to point out that three ships beside the Delphy Intercepted that hearing, the 0. 8. Kennedy, the U. 0. S. btpddert and the V. B. 8. Farragut and the recorda ahowlng tbeae interceptions were salvaged from the wreck and are available for tha court's per seal.'' |