September 8, 2023 is the centennial of the Honda Point Naval Disaster, the worst peacetime loss of ships in the history of the US Navy.

In commemoration, the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum has recorded an abridged version of an 18-page letter sent home by Waterloo native and survivor of the disaster, Robert Ferguson. Written just 8 days after the disaster, it is one of the earliest eyewitness accounts of the event from an enlisted man.

The original letter resides in the collection of the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis, Washington.

Special thanks to them for accommodating this recording.

Thanks, also, to UNI Intern Jude Beekman for helping to transcribe the letter.

23 sailors perished at Honda Point. We honor their memory and pay tribute to the extreme acts of heroism that prevented further casualties on Saturday, September 8, 1923.