On the morning of July 21, 1905, Navy seamen aboard the USS Bennington anchored in San Diego Bay would have been finishing a routine cleaning of the previous day’s 300-ton coal delivery while getting ready for departure.
They could not have anticipated the two explosions that would rock the Bennington that morning, sending a column of steam through her deck, killing 60 men and injuring 46 others, according to local exhibit curator Jennifer Garrey.
The devastation that ensued would categorize the incident as one of the worst disasters in San Diego maritime history.
“The ship just blew up and all these people were burned by the steam,” Garrey said.
The Point Loma community scrambled, coming together to help the victims aboard the USS Bennington that morning, she said. Two nearby vessels ” the ferryboat Ramona and the Spreckels, a tugboat ” came to the aid of the Bennington as she began to sink, Garrey said.
Historical accounts appearing in the online Journal of San Diego History (JSDH) describe the horrific events the day that brought the city to a halt.
“Men walked about naked with sheets of flesh clinging loosely to their bodies,” writes Broeke Oder in his award-winning JSDH article.
Harkening to history, the Peninsula community is honoring the memory of the Bennington and its crew at Liberty Station’s “Walk through Time,” a historical exhibit on display at the NTC Command Center, Building 200, 2640 Historic Decatur Road in Point Loma.
An annual remembrance ceremony was also held Saturday, July 19 at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery to commemorate the warship and its fallen sailors. The event is hosted annually by the Sons of the American Revolution.
Historical photographs of the victims’ mass burial hang along the halls of the former Naval Training Center at Liberty Station. The black-and-white pictures add an ominous perspective to the 103-year-old tragedy.
Just down the hall from the photographs stands a white Navy uniform encased in glass. The stained shirt once belonged to a sailor assigned to the USS Bennington and now stands stoicly in the halls of the former Naval Training Center’s Command Center as a grim reminder.
The cloudy, brown stains on the hand-stitched jumper seem to hold clues as to the toll the accident must have taken on its crew.
A boiler room burst that fateful morning, exploding after too much steam had pressurized inside it, according to JSDH.