E-2991   Rare and historic section of aircraft from a crashed and marooned US aircraft that went down in Mexico in 1919. The verso written in ink with the text of the last will and testament of two American Pilots Cecil Connolly and Fred Waterhouse, who crashed in the Baja de California, south of San Diego, after a storm, and who survived 17 days without food, only to be picked up and subsequently killed by two Mexican fishermen. The paint on the painted side badly worn, the verso slightly discolored with oil stains to left margin. Together with two identical photographs of the two draped coffins aboard the USS Aaron Ward.

The tale of the tragic death of two American Army flyers, attached to the 9th Aero Squadron, based in San Diego, who whilst on patrol hit a storm and were thrown dramatically off course. They eventually found land and crashed on an open beach at Refugio de Guadelupe, a deserted area on the eastern shore of the Baja de California, south of the Mexican border. With little or no food they survived 17 days waiting on the beach, until they were discovered by two Mexican fishermen, who took them in, fed them, but in some argument between the parties, the flyers were both killed, apparently on September 3rd 1919. The bodies were recovered in October 19th 1919 at Angeles Bay by the US Navy, according to the writer of the text, and brought aboard USS Aaron Ward to be returned to San Diego. A Mexican Judge in Tijuana in October 1921, two years later, sentenced the two men to 6 years imprisonment for homicide during a fight, and in 1928 the Connolly family sought financial recompense from the Mexican Government for covering up the two deaths. The text appears to have been transcribed by a naval officer, who was there when the bodies were recovered (see the hand writing on one of the photographs shot onboard the USS Aaron Ward), probably copying an original text found on the flyer's person.  $995