On October 25, 1933, the damaged heavy cruiser USS Chicago lay at California’s Mare Island Navy Yard with a diving barge alongside. The previous morning, she had collided with the British freighter Silverpalm in dense fog off Point Sur. The freighter’s bow struck Chicago’s port side forward of her first main gun turret, penetrating nearly 18 feet into the hull and damaging nine staterooms. Three men died as a result of the collision.
Rescue crews used hatchets and torches to reach men trapped in the twisted steel. Marine First Lieutenant Frederick S. Chappelle was pulled from the wreckage but died in a hospital six hours later. Chief Pay Clerk John W. Troy and Lieutenant Harold A. MacFarlane were also killed. Machinist Joseph A. Oehlers survived severe injuries, though one arm had to be amputated below the elbow. Chicago subsequently underwent extensive repairs at Mare Island.
The collision also led to a prolonged dispute over responsibility. A naval inquiry convened on October 25 examined the ships’ movements and the circumstances of their encounter. Although the Navy’s board and the federal district court initially blamed Silverpalm, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1937 that both vessels were at fault. Speed in restricted visibility, engine response, and conflicting navigational evidence were central to the case.
