WWII Target Practice Ship Still Lies in Redwood City

Redwood City boasts the last remnant of a history lesson from both World Wars and one of the nation’s greatest naval disasters, as well as a lot of local history. Seeing it, however, is not for the faint of heart. You’ll probably get your feet wet.

Patch recently in Redwood City, which prompted a reader to comment that “kayaking is also very popular” with area residents. Popular indeed, and it turns out that one of the prime destinations is the remains of the USS Thompson, a Navy destroyer that lies in mudflats near the San Mateo County side of the line with Alameda County.

There’s not much left of the 314-foot Clemson-class ship that was built for World War I but just missed that conflict when it was launched in 1919.

The ship was later used for target practice in WWII. Nevertheless, quick surfing on the Internet shows that a hardy band of kayakers still ventures out.

“We had squalls .. light rains, 20 knot winds with 30 knot gusts” and up to four foot wind waves, recalled one kayaker. “It made for some exciting and challenging kayaking!”

The first two miles to the wreck are in the sheltered waters of Redwood Slough, but the final three miles are in the exposed South Bay, which, as one weekend sailor recalled “can be exciting at times.”

The Thompson’s remains may very well serve as the tombstone for a line of ships that more than proved their worth - “four piper” destroyers that wrote many of the navy’s finest chapters.  While the Thompson served as a floating punching bag, other ships of its class, all of them obsolete for years, were fighting the Axis powers in both the Pacific and Atlantic. One, the USS Ward, sank a Japanese submarine at Pearl Harbor moments BEFORE that naval base was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941.  

Those kayakers brave enough to venture out include Brian Lucido.

“Keep in mind that the South Bay, north of the Dumbarton Bridge, can get pretty rough,” he said. “The water is especially rough in the deep water channel when there is a strong current. The worst conditions I have experienced have been during a northerly wind and a strong ebb tide. The waves can get pretty big during these conditions!”

The Thompson never fired a shot in anger. Still, it had a brush with history.

The Thompson was part of a flotilla of 14 destroyers that was headed from San Francisco to San Diego on Sept. 8, 1923 when the lead vessel made a wrong turn and smashed into jagged rock near Point Conception. Seven ships were lost and 23 sailors killed. The Thompson was last in line and its skipper did not make the fatal turn..

Stricken from the Navy list in 1930, the Thompson was sold for scrap, but instead of being broken up, the destroyer’s future included a stint as a restaurant and bar during Prohibition.

There’s another way to see what nautical maps call the “South Bay Wreck.” Weather and routes permitting, passengers on SFO flights can look down and spot what is part of the past.