Salvagers Find 3 Bodies on Sub : Toxic Gases Pumped Out of Abandoned U.S. Boat

Navy salvage workers who boarded the U.S. submarine Bonefish as the abandoned vessel drifted in the Atlantic today found the bodies of the three men missing after explosions and fire rocked the boat, Navy officials said.

A Navy salvage crew boarded the submarine Tuesday but had to pump out toxic gases swirling through the hull before they could enter the sub, which had been adrift since Sunday.

The dead were identified as Lt. Ray Everts Jr., 30, of Naoma, W.Va.; Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Bordelon Jr., 39, of Willis, Tex., and Petty Officer 3rd Class Marshall Lindgren, 21, of Pisgah Forest, N.C.

Navy spokesman Terry Borton said two of the bodies were found at their stations in the control room of the sub and a third in an administrative compartment.

The rest of the 92-man crew escaped serious injury when they abandoned the 30-year-old boat 160 miles east of Port Canaveral, Fla.

Adm. Carlisle A. H. Trost, chief of naval operations, said Tuesday that the three men may have died at their posts as they made sure that everyone got clear. But a sailor said the men were newly assigned to the sub and may have gotten lost in the smoke and gas.