Lot 193

(PEARL HARBOR: WEST LOCH DISASTER)

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(PEARL HARBOR: WEST LOCH DISASTER)

Estimate: $300 - $400

Starting Bid: $160

(0 Bids)

by Alexander Historical Auctions LLC
July 30, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Live Auction
106 East Main Street, Suite 103
Elkton, MD, US 21921

(PEARL HARBOR: WEST LOCH DISASTER)
Important content typed D.S. 1p. 4to., San Francisco, May 25, 1944, a commendation signed by Commander LAWRENCE BLODGETT for Lt. Commander B. I. Fielding for his actions during the West Loch disaster at Pearl Harbor, May 21, 1944. In part: ‘…At the time in question six LST's, fully combat-loaded, caught fire, burned, exploded and sank in West Loch waters immediately adjacent to the Ammunition Depot. The causalities were terrific and conditions hazardous. Despite this imminent danger you, as Senior Medical Officer of this station, with your staff, worked unceasingly for a period of twenty-four hours giving medical air and treatment to hundreds of casualties routed through the depot hospital. Your expert and efficient handling of all relevant details, and the fact that you carried throughout the entire disaster, resulted in the saving of the lives of many officers and men. I consider your conduct exemplary…'. Since the U.S. entry into World War II, West Loch had harbored large stores of ammunition, fuel, and other materiel. On May 21, 1944, the various berths were housing landing ships, tank (LSTs) in preparation for their journey to Saipan, the invasion of which was scheduled for June 15, 1944. The disaster stemmed from an initial explosion of a mortar around aboard LST-353 and was followed by a larger second explosion from whereabouts unknown, and yet a third larger still. Within minutes, 200 men had been thrown into the water and many LSTs tied together at berths began to sink. LAWRENCE FRANCIS BLODGETT, a U.S. Navy navigator and torpedo boat commander, had already witnessed a naval tragedy at Honda Point in 1923, during which the U.S. Navy lost more warships in ten minutes than in the entirety of World War I. Blodgett was navigating officer on the flagship USS DELPHY in an armada of fourteen destroyers who set off from San Francisco to San Diego on Sept. 8, 1923 in what was supposed to be a speed trial. The trip to San Diego entailed the avoidance of Honda Point, a hook of land jutting out from the coast a few miles north of the entrance of the Santa Barbara Channel. Dense fog and navigational errors brought on by the DELPHY's broken gyroscopic compass imperiled the trip and the ships which followed. When the fleet reached the channel in which to make a sharp turn into San Diego port, Blodgett suggested they use another tool to make sure the ship reached the channel close to the port: a fathometer, which measures depth. A shallow reading would mean the DELPHY was too close to the coast to safely turn. However Blodgett's request to slow for soundings was disregarded by the fleet's captain Edward Watson and the DELPHY's captain David T. Hunter, and the ship crashed into a submerged pinnacle reef, setting off a series of subsequent crashes than resulted in the pileup of seven destroyers. In a desperate search for scapegoats, Blodgett would be court-martialed for a peacetime tragedy and charged with ‘culpable inefficiency and negligence'. He was later acquitted. Blodgett went on to command the USS MAHOPAC from 1936-1938. He would retire in 1941 and head up the Ammunition Depot at West Loch. Evenly toned and very good

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Bid Increments
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$0 $99 $10
$100 $499 $20
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 + $10,000