on 29 September 1924. On 20 October 1924, while Trenton was conducting gunnery drills off the Virginia Capes near Norfolk, powder bags in her forward turret exploded, killing or injuring every member of the gun crew. During the ensuing fire, Ensign Henry Clay Drexler and Boatswain's Mate First Class George Cholister attempted to dump powder charges into the immersion tank before they detonated but failed. Ensign Drexler was killed when the charge exploded, and Boatswain's Mate Cholister was overcome by fire and fumes before he could reach his objective. He died the following day. Both men were awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously. Later that month, Trenton steamed north to join in the futile search for lost American motor yacht Leif Ericsson, which went missing with three aboard while en route from Bergen, Norway, to the United States. The search was suspended on 12 November as further attempts to locate it were deemed “futile” in light of the heavy weather in the region during the two months since the vessel was last heard from. Lost were William W. Nutting and Arthur Hildebrand, American writers, and Eric Todahal, a painter. Following that mission, the light cruiser operated along the United States East Coast until 3 February 1925, when she departed Philadelphia to join the rest of the Scouting Fleet off Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. After gunnery exercises, the fleet headed for the Panama Canal and transited it in mid-month. On 23 February, the combined forces of the Battle Fleet and Scouting Fleet departed Balboa, Panama, and steamed north to San Diego. En route, the ships participated in a fleet problem, then assembled in the San Diego-San Francisco area. On 15 April, the US Fleet put to sea for the Central Pacific and conducted another battle problem en route — this one designed to test fully the defenses of the Hawaiian Islands. After reaching Hawaiian waters, the Fleet as a whole conducted tactical exercises there until 7 June, when most of the Scouting Fleet headed back toward the Atlantic. Trenton — in Cruiser Division 2 (CruDiv 2) — sortied with the Battle Fleet on 1 July, for a cruise to the South Pacific and visits to Australia and New Zealand. After stopping at Samoa, the ships visited the ports of Melbourne, Wellington, Sydney, Auckland, Dunedin, and Lyttelton. Late in August, CruDiv 2 turned homeward and steamed via the Marquesas and Galapagos Islands and