Evening journal., 1907-06-15

BY Our own Wire. Publishers Press.
WASHINGTON. June IA telephone
message to the Navy Department from
the commandant Of the Norfolk Navy
Yard announces that the wrecked launch
Of the Minnesota had been raised to the
surface. and that it contained only ono
body. that of the fireman. Search will be
continued by divers for the other bodies.
The launch was raised by means Of a
derrick sent out from Norfolk.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va, June 15.-
With canopy frame crushed, but cam
vas still tightly fastened down. the
missing launch Of the battleship Min
nesota was located In twenty-seven
feet Of water, about 1900 yards west by
south Of Fort Wool last evening.
Across the little craft was a tell-tale
piece Of towing line, serving to con-
Vince the naval officers that they are
fright in their theory that the launch
was run down by fleet Of some kind
i'm tow Of a tug. The diver who went
down to examine the launch reported
that the heads and arms of the three
men were protruding from beneath the
canvass covering, tho men having
made a desperate fight for life when
they We're carried down like rats In a
trap.
Searchllghts from all the American
battleships played upon the spot
around which two floating derricks, the
naval tug Potomac and a half dozen
/ launches and cutters are anchored.
The Inflated boat was found by the
launches of - battleships Ohio and
Iowa, which were dragging over a
course laid out by the officers. A diver
from the Indiana was sent down as
soon as possible, and before darkness
had settled over the Roads, signals
from ship to ship announced that the
search, which had been in progress
since Tuesday, was at an end.
In looking for the boat. the officers
proceeded on the theory that the launch
when It left the Exposition grounds,
started for the battleship Connecticut
to put Midshipman Holcomb aboard
that vessel, to which he belonged.
It was supposed that the boat was
run down somewhere between a point
where she would have started across
the main channel and the battleshlp
Connecticut There the find was made
the spit being several hundred yards
from where the Connecticut was an
chored. and a short distance from the
French squadron.
It was learned here last night that
a New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk
car float passed through the Roads
lshortly after midnight Tuesday morn
fling bound from Cape Charles for Nor
folk. The float arrived In Norfolk
about o'clNk Tuesday morning, and
lis believed 70 have been directly off the
Exposition grounds at the time the
launch went down in the same place.
AS far as the diver could tell the
hull Of the launch was not damaged
lonly the canopy frame being crushed
This indicates that the boat was not in
lcollision with a tug or other such craft
Naval officers are convinced that the
boat ran into a tow line and was
Thrown under a square end barge or
/ float. If this happened the launch
lmust have been literally mashed be-
ilneath the water. and its occupants, FIVE
lmidshipmen and six seamen, had no
chance TO escape.
/ Although do-day's news dispatches say
but one body was recovered. relatives OF
the late midshipman Holcomb, at New
/ Castle last night received kilograms stat
ing that his body had been recovered
and that It would be shipped from Norfolk