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Show FIRST ARMED U.S. STEAMER IS SUNK THE FREIGHTER AZTEC SENT TO BOTTOM WITHOUT WARNING BY" SUBMARINE. Eleven Americans Reported to Have Been Drowned, Naval Guard With Ship Captain Being Picked Up. Washington French admiralty dispatches dis-patches to the French embassy here on April 2 announcing the sinking Without warning of the first armed American merchant ship, the freighter Aztec, by a German submarine, said apparently Lieut. William Fuller Gres-ham Gres-ham and twelve American bluejackets, constituting the armed guard of the vessel, had been saved, but that eleven of the crew were reported missing. The guard with the captain and three other members of the crew in the second officer and eighteen men, is: were picked up by the French patrol boat Sirrius after three hours. Eleven men are thought to have been drowned when the first boat to put off was smashed. The third boat, containing the econd officer and eighteen men, is not directly accounted for, but the fact that only eleven are reported missing;, leads to the belief that it must have been picked up. The admiralty report said the Aztec, bound from' New York to Havre, was torpedoed without warning April 2 off Ouessant. The torpedo struck squarely amidships, emitting a powerful power-ful gas and putting the wireless out of commission. Officials said the disaster Would not affect the policy of arming ships, which will be continued in the most efficient manner possible. Secretary Daniels declined to make public the list of naval officers and gunners who manned the two five-inch guns placed fore and aft on the Aztec. "Until the survivors are listed and the department is officially advised concerning those whose lives may be lost," he said, "it will not announce the naval personnel of the Aztec." |