People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1895 — FIND THE WRECKAGE. [ARTICLE]

FIND THE WRECKAGE.

THE REINA REGENTE SUNK OFF GIBRALTAR. Th* Spanish Warship Alfonso XII Make* the Discovery, and Ke ports at Cadiz —The Crew of 420 Men Lost with the Cruiser. Cadiz, March 19.—The Spanish cruiser, Alfonso XII., has returned here after searching for the missing cruiser Reina Regente, and reports having found the latter vessel sunk near Bajo Aceitanos, not far from the straits of Gibraltar. Only twenty inches of the Reina Regente's masts showed above water. The Alfonso XII. has returned to the scene of the wreck with a number of divers and diving appliances in order to recover the bodies of the crew of the sunken warship. The Reina Regente was reported missing March 13. She had just con- ' "yed from Cadiz to Tangier the ret lining Moorish mission to Spain, f ieees of one of her boats and flag? were reported to have been picked up along the shore near Ceuta and Tarifa. She carried a crew of 420 officers an l men and all are believed to have perished. The Reina Regente, about two years ago, visited New York as one of the Spanish squadron which escorted across the Atlantic the Columbus caravels. The Infanta Isabel, now reported to have sunk an American schooner off the coast of Cuba, and the Nueva Espana were the other ships of the Spanish squadron. All three of these Spanish warships took a conspicuous part in the great Columbian naval parade in New York harbor on April 27 of the same year. The Reina Regente was launched in 1887 and was one of the three secondclass deck-protected cruisers of tl° same build, her sister ships being the Alfonso XII. and Lepanto, all of 4.80‘ tons, 12,000 horse-power and expected tq steam twenty knots. The wrecked cruiser was 320 feet long, had 50 feet 6 inches beam and a draught of 20 feet 4 inches. She was propelled by twin screws. Her protected deck was 43-4 inches thick on the slopes, her conning tower had 5 inches of armor and her gun shields were 3 Inches thick. The armament of the Reina Regente consisted of four 91-2-inch Hon tori i guns, one on each side forward of the central super-structure, one on eac' side aft; six 4 3-4 Montoria guns in broadside, the forward and after pairin sponsors, middle pair in recessed ports, and fifteen rapid-fire and machine guns. She was also fitted with five torpedo tubes.