Seven missing sailors from the USS Fitzgerald were found dead in flooded berthing compartments following the warship’s collision with a merchant vessel, a US military official said.

The Navy’s 7th Fleet said searchers found the bodies Sunday morning, Japan time, after the guided-missile destroyer returned to its base in Japan.

“This loss is something we all feel,” Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of the US 7th Fleet, told reporters alongside the ship at Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan Sunday.

“We have found a number of the remains … of our missing shipmates, and our deepest sympathies go out to the families of those shipmates,” he said.