Overview
A WWII submarine chaser sunk after a collision, resting at about 90' off Point Loma near the mouth of San Diego Bay. Notable for a widely-documented historical curiosity: her first, very brief, commanding officer was L. Ron Hubbard, later the founder of Scientology.
What to See
Deteriorated sub-chaser structure and debris field; historical curiosity value is high given the Hubbard connection.
Typical Conditions
Historical unexploded ordnance was present on the wreck for decades but was located and detonated by Navy EOD divers - treat as cleared, but verify current status before treating as fully benign. Depth is moderate but broken/deteriorated structure and current warrant caution.
History
USS PC-815, a PC-461-class submarine chaser, built by Albina Engine & Machine Works, Portland, OR; laid down 10 Oct 1942, launched 5 Dec 1942, commissioned 20 April 1943 (173' long, 23' beam, crew of 59). Her first commanding officer, for about 80 days in 1943, was L. Ron Hubbard - he was removed from command after conducting unauthorized gunnery practice in Mexican territorial waters, having believed he'd engaged Japanese submarines off the Oregon coast (generally attributed to whales and a known magnetic seafloor anomaly rather than actual enemy contact). PC-815 then served as a shore patrol vessel off San Diego, largely inactive per her own Movement Card, restored to active duty 2 Sept 1945. At 6:47 AM on 11 September 1945, in dense fog off San Diego, she collided with the destroyer USS Laffey (DD-724), which cut her nearly in half; caught fire and sank within about five minutes, with one crewman missing and presumed drowned. CONFIRMED against an official Navy source: the Naval History and Heritage Command's own DANFS entry for USS Laffey corroborates the collision and states Laffey 'rescued all but one of the PC's crew.' Post-wreck, in TWO separate stages: (1) Navy divers demolished the wreck in early November 1945, shortly after the sinking, because it posed a navigation hazard to a busy shipping channel; (2) that demolition evidently didn't clear everything - the structure went on deteriorating for nearly 40 years, exposing still-live WWII ordnance (roughly 800 lbs of 3" shells, aerial bombs, and 'hedgehog' anti-submarine charges). A Navy minesweeper training exercise rediscovered the exposed ordnance, and Navy EOD divers detonated it in stages (one blast reportedly threw a geyser about 100 yards wide and 250' high). Documented and dived by the local tech community (wreckedinmyrevo.com, which nicknames her 'the jinxed sub-chaser').