Requiescant

The U.S.S. Tacoma, 20-year-old light cruiser which ran on Blanquilla Reef off Vera Cruz while on duty in Mexican waters (TIME, Jan. 28), was struck by a heavy norther while still aground. Captain Herbert G. Sparrow and 19 men remained aboard trying to float the ship. During the storm, which lasted two days and drove the tugs, standing by, to harbor, the Captain and three radio men lost their lives. The ship is a complete loss, wedged on the reef with a 100DEG list, wrecked pilothouse gone, light bulkheads crushed, spar deck swept clean, gun-deck partially under water and littered with wreckage, engine rooms obstructed with wreckage and filled two feet deep with sand and coral, the starboard side crushed, one funnel, topmast and all top hamper down or overboard.

Rear Admiral Kittelle, who arrived with a destroyer squadron after the tragedy, reported that Captain Sparrow and the three men lost their lives "in a gallant attempt to maintain radio communication."