The area of search for Miss Earhart and her pilot, Captain Noonan, who came down in the Pacific on Friday, was changed yesterday, but there is still no news of the flyers. The search is now going on south-east of Howland Island, instead of north.
The United States battleship Colorado, leader of the rescue expedition, set off for this area on Tuesday night, and yesterday a message was sent to the coastguard cutter Itasca and the United States aircraft-carrier Swan ordering them to follow the Colorado.
The Itasca and Swan have been told to search the Winslow Bank, 175 miles south-east of Howland Island, and the Corondolet Reef, which forms the southern fringe of the Phoenix Islands.
The aircraft carrier Lexington, with 54 Õplanes on board, was yesterday making 33 knots, states Reuter.
The search, in which more than 4,000 men are engaged, will now apparently be conducted in accordance with the seemingly growing belief that if the fliers are still alive they must have reached an island or coral reef. Small islands are numerous, beginning 200 miles south, east, and north-west of Howland Island, but are virtually unknown in the area already searched to the north of the island.
Yesterday was a day of fewer rumours than the previous day, but a wireless amateur of Oakland, California, claimed to have picked up a message from Miss Earhart saying ÒWe are on a coral reefÉ DonÕt know how long we can lastÉÊWe are O.K., but a little weak.Ó