The Discovery Of the USS Macon
While much attention
was on Moffett
Field's future
at the turn of
the decade, a
small team of
explorers was
interested only
in its past.
Within days of
the 1935 crash
of the USS Macon off
the California
Coast near Point
Sur, efforts were
made to find the
wreckage, but
to no avail.
In 1989, the
Macon Expeditionary
Group headed by
Richard Sands
of San Francisco,
a former Navy
pilot, renewed
efforts to find
the remains. Among
those involved
was David Packard,
founder of the
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Research Institute,
and Gordon Wiley,
son of the USS Macon's
skipper, Herbert
V. Wiley.
Early efforts
were unsuccessful.
Their break came
when Wiley's sister,
Marie Wiley Ross,
found a restaurant
in Moss Landing
north of Monterey
that displayed
a piece of metal
the owners claimed
came from the
Macon. Ross immediately
recognized its
unique shape as
having come from
her father's ship.
After some difficulty,
the group was
able to find the
fisherman who
had pulled up
the two-foot piece
of metal in his
nets. Fortunately,
he had kept meticulous
fishing records.
"He told
us that he had
lost a whole lot
of rigging at
the one spot,"
Sands told the
Peninsula Times
Tribune in 1990.
"He knew
something was
down there. He
knew it was the
Macon."
Armed with the
new coordinates,
a three-man crew
of the Navy deep
submersible, Sea
Cliff, went in
search of the
Macon on June
24, 1990. Within
15 minutes, the
search was over.
The explorers
found the twisted
remains of the
world's largest
aircraft on a
sandy perch about
1,450 feet deep
and about two
miles south of
the site of previous
searches.
Among the twisted
girders and gangways
that comprised
the skeleton-like
interior of the
rigid airship,
the crew also
found the remains
of three of the
Macon's Sparrowhawk
fighter airplanes,
their insignias
still clearly
visible.
The final resting
place of the USS Macon
was no longer
in doubt. But,
in the days ahead,
the future of
its home base
would be.
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