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Show II GUARD FIRES 01 1 S. DESTROYER . WASHINGTON, March 16. William Luss, a seaman of an American destroyer de-stroyer in the war zone, was killed, and three others of the ship's crew slightly wounded, last January 16 when the armed naval guard on an American liner fired on the convoying destroyer after mistaking her in the darkness for an enemy submarine. In 'making this known late today, the navy department said Vice Admiral Sims had named a court of inquiry which is making a thorough investigation. investiga-tion. When the liner reached her destination, desti-nation, the master gave a complete account ac-count of the accident to Admiral Sims, but it has not been made public, nor has there been any announcement as to the extent of the damage to the dostroyer. Admiral Sims's report on tho accident acci-dent was sent to the department by mail, but the name of the seaman was cabled when tho destroyer reached port, the dispatch merely saying that he had been lulled in an "accident," and it was announced by the department. In the absence of details, officials of the navy department hesitated to comment on" the case. It was suggested, however, that the destroyer might have run out of the place assigned her in the convoy and thus aroused the suspicion of the gun crew. , Under certain atmospheric conditions or at night, one of the new type destroyers destroy-ers might easily appear to be a large submarine, her masts being about the same height and the flush deck hull being be-ing awash in a choppy sea. So far as is known, this was the first accident of its kind among American vessels in the war zone, but some months ago an American warship in the Mediterranean Medi-terranean fired on an Italian submarine after it had failed to reveal its nationality nation-ality when signaled to do so by the American. One man on the submarine was killed and another wounded. An American naval court of inquiry which investigated tho case, recommended recommend-ed a reduction of a certain number in the grade of the commanding officer of the American vessel, but asked that clemency be shown because of the zeal and attention to duty shown by the of-, ficer. The Italian government jointd in the request, but the court's verdict was allowed to stand. |