Dead sailors found

YOKOSUKA: 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 yesterday.

The Fitzgerald collided with the merchant vessel more than three times its size south-west of Yokosuka early on Saturday. The search at sea has been called off, US Seventh fleet Commander ViceAdmiral Joseph Aucoin said.

He said the Fitzgerald could have sunk but for the crew’s desperate efforts to save the ship.–