The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-03-19
WORST FEARS TRUE.
The Lost Reina Regente Has
Been Discovered.
She Went Down Near the
Straits of Gibraltar.
ALL HANDS PERISHED.
The Tips of the Masts Sticking
Above the Water.
Divers Will Try to Rescue the
Dead Bodies.

CADIz, March 19-The Spanish cruiser
Alfonso XIII has returned here after
search for the missing cruiser Reina
Regente. and reports having found the
latter vessel sunk near Bajo Aceitanos.
not far from the straits of Gibraltar.
Only twenty inches of the Reina Re-
gente's masts were above water.
The Alfanso XIII has returned to the
scene of the wreck with a number of
divers and diving appliances in order to
recover the bodies of the crew of the
sunken warship. The Reina Regente
was reported missing on March 13. She
had Just conveyed from CadiZ to Tangier
the returning Moorish mission to Spain.
The cruiser left Tangier on March 10
for Cadiz and her whereabouts have not
been definitely ascertained until today.
Pieces of one of her boats and semaphore
flags are reported to have been picked
up along the shore near Ceuta and
Tarifa. She carried crew of 420 officers
and men and all hands are believed to
have persisted
So soon as the reports of the disaster
became current a number of Spanish
and British war ships put to sea in search
of her.
A French steamship on March ID ar
rived at Gibraltar and reported having
seen big vessel, supposed to have been
the Reina Regente, ashore in Aceitunos
bay (probably Bajo Aceitanos( The COM
mander cf the French craft added that
he was unable to assist the war ship on
account of heavy weather.
On March 10 the steamer Mayfair ar
rived at Barcelona and reported sighting
a vessel believed to be the Spanish cruiser
Reina Regente on the morning of March
10 between Tarifa and Cape EsparteL
The war ship had lost her funnel and
bridge, and was laboring heavily in the
high seas and fierce gale which pre-
vailed. Although she was apparently
unmana0eabIe the cruiser did not ask for
assistance, and therefore the Mayfair did
not offer her any. But the captain of the
Nayfair added that he was Of the opin-
ion that she could not long have survived
the Storm in the condition in which she
appeared to be at the time he saw her.
Later the Spanish cruisers Isle de Lu-
zen and Alfonso XIII, returned to Cadiz,
after having searched the Spanish and
African coast and the straits without any
news of the missing war ship.
The uncertainty as to the fate of the
Reina Regente caused great public ex-
element in Madrid and the government
was accused of keeping back news of the
ship and OF having ordered the deten.
ton of the censors of all kilograms Civ
ing information about her.
But when a number of packages, q
compass box and other wreckage known
to have belonged to Reina Regente was
washed ashore at Tarifa she was given
up for lost. In Cadiz and Cartagena was
most of the 420 officers and men of the
lost cruiser who belonged there. Hence
there has been great anxiety and excite
ment from the moment she was reported
missing.
The Reina Regente about two years
ago came to New York as one of the
Spanish squadron which escorted across
the Atlantic the Columbus caravels. The
Infanta Isabel. now reported to have
sunk an American schooner off the coss
of Cuba, and the Nuevs Espana, were
the other ships of the Spanish squadron
The latter arrived at Fortress Monroe OF
April 81, 1898, the Reina Regente having
the caTaval Santa Maria In tow; the Rints
WAS in tow of the Iufauta Isabel and thu
Nina was towed by the Nueva Espana
All three of the Spanish warships took
conspicuous part in the great CoIum biaI
naval parade in New York harbor OF
April ~ the same year.