It was a dark, stormy, and foggy night on March 13, 1961, when the Greek freighter Dominator ran itself aground on Rocky Point in PVE. It was carrying a cargo of wheat and beef down the coast from Vancouver, when the captain prematurely decided to turn into LA Harbor.

By the next morning we in PV had heard about it and went over to see it. It was a big tourist attraction wallowing there on the rocks, and the cliffs were lined with gawkers to watch it being battered by the surf. Every effort possible, given the technology at the time, was made to save the ship. Futile efforts were made to tow it off the rocks and, when that failed, to unload the cargo . . . which also failed. After two days, the crew was safely removed and the hulk left to rust away on the shoreline. For the residents of Lunada Bay, the smell of rotting wheat and beef wafting across the area courtesy of prevailing winds was an unpleasant consequence, not to mention the hordes of flies feasting on the cargo.

The Dominator began life at the Liberty ship Melville Jacoby, who was a journalist killed while reporting on World War II in the Pacific. The Liberty ships were built by Kaiser Steel in sections to speed wartime production, then welded together. Many of them were initially employed taking supplies to Russia via Murmansk, which was relatively safe from German occupation, in an effort to keep Russia in the war. Had Russia fallen, the large German armies tied up fighting her would have been freed to move to the Western Front, with potentially unfavorable consequences for the Allies. So ships like the Dominator played an important role in the war.

One of the consequences of the ships having been built in sections and welded together is that there was one chronically weak spot in the hull which tended to crack when subjected to the cold North Atlantic water. When the Dominator broke in two after months of being hammered by the surf, this is where she broke.

Palos Verdes High School was set to open in the Fall of 1961 and there was much discussion concerning what the school mascot should be. The Dominators was a leading contender, but the image of the shipwreck just wasn’t consistent with athletic prowess. There were no girls interscholastic sports in those days, so the slightly scandalous implications for the name of the girls teams was not a factor. The name Sea Kings was decided upon, and the rest is history.

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