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Show Solemn Honors Paid By Fleet To Vera Cruz Dead As Bodies Are Started On Way To North VERA CRUZ, May 3. The bodies of .seventeen American bluejackets and Marines who fell victims of the Mexican Mex-ican snipers during the operations accompanying the occupation ofTera Cruz were started on their way to New York today on board the armored armor-ed cruiser Montana. Solemn honors were paid 'by the great assemblage of United States war vessels as the Montana passed out of the harbor and these were joined in by the vessels of the British, Brit-ish, French and Spanish navies. The crews of the warships In full uniform lined the sides of the war-.hi-ps and as the Montana reached .hem theniarines stood at attention, he guards presented arms and the chips' band played funeral marches. One by one the colors of the fighting fight-ing craft sank to half-mast as the Montana steamed through a lane formed by two divisions of the Atlantic Atlan-tic fleet. The ship reached the end of the parallel lines, the Montana gradually increased her speed, and when she turned toward the north the Hags of all the ships fluttered to the tops once more and the crews broke ranks. On shore during the Montana's passage out the stars and stripes flying fly-ing over Brig. Gen. Frederick Funs-ton's Funs-ton's head quarters was lowered to half-mast. The hospital ship Solace with about one hundred sick and wounded American bluejackets and Marines on board, it was stated today, might sail northward later this week. All the men under treatment are doing well. Rear Admiral Frank F. Fletcher was deeply affected at the departure of the Montana today. He said to newspaper men: "By dying in defense of their country coun-try they have been given the highest honor that can be accorded to an American. The deepest sympathy of their comrades in the fleet goes out to the bereaved ones at home." |
