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1938 
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oc rot ary to tho President 
Under the personal command of ^resident Roosevelt, a 
detachment of 50 officers and enlisted men from the USS 
Houston ■ earched San Salvador Island toda3 r in a futile effort 
to discover the grave of Lieutenant John S. Cowan, buried 
there in 1813 by admiral David Porter, then commander of tho 
U.S. Frigate Essex* Evidently the passage of time - 125 
years of continuous erosion by wind and waters - had obliter- 
ated all evidence of the rest ing place of the American 
Lieutenant . 
The President was assisted in the search by Captain George 
N. Barker, commanding the cruiser Houston and by Commander 
Daniel J. Callaghan, Naval Aide. The searching party landed 
in the early morning and, when they returned to the Houston, 
the land about Jamas Bay - anchorage of the Frigate Essex 
in 1813 - had been combed from end to end and inland about 
one third of a mile* 
Had the search been successful, as the President eagerly 
hoped it would be, he planned to take the remains of Lieut- 
enant Cov/an from San Salvador Island to the United States 
Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland to bo placed there with 
many of America’s Naval heroes, if the Ecuadorian Government 
had given its permission which the President, of course, 
would have requested. 
Tho searching party captured two small kids - believed to 
be lineal descendants of goats landed by admiral Porter when 
he visited San Salvador Island in the years 1812 to 1814 . 
One of the kids was rescued by a marine from the clutches of 
a Galapagos hawk. Both are now prized mascots of tno Houston 
In two salty lagoons , well back from he shore lino, 
members of the searching nartv erase upon c sizable flock of 
vivid pink flamingoes . Surprised and fri^i^iiwu. . <. 
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by the strange sight of r 
to flight • For tho moment , the p 
taking , never to bo forgotten beauty . 
flamingoes sudd on lv took 
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Page One . 
