MARITIME ACCIDENT
Sailors found in flooded compartments of stricken US warship
Yokosuka, Japan — The bodies of missing sailors were found in flooded compartments of the USS Fitzgerald, which came close to sinking after a collision with a container ship off Japan tore a gash under the warship’s waterline, the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet commander said on Sunday. Vice-Admiral Joseph P Aucoin declined to say how many of the bodies of the seven missing sailors had been recovered, but Japanese media reported that all had died. The search at sea had ended, Aucoin told a news conference. The USS Fitzgerald could have foundered, or even sunk, but for the crew’s desperate efforts to save the ship, he said. "The damage was significant. There was a big gash under the water," Aucoin said at Yokosuka naval base, home of the US Seventh Fleet, the docked Fitzgerald behind him. "A significant portion of the crew was sleeping" when the destroyer collided with the Philippine-flagged container ship, destroying the commander’s cabin, he said. The Fitzgerald is salvageable, he said, b...
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