YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA PREF. – The commander of the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet says that search and rescue efforts are over for the seven sailors missing after a destroyer collided with a container ship in waters off Japan.

But Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin declined to say how many bodies were recovered from USS Fitzgerald after it returned to its home port in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture.

The Fitzgerald came close to sinking or foundering after the collision Saturday with the container ship ripped a big gash under the warships waterline, Aucoin said.

“The damage was significant. There was a big gash under the water,” Aucoin told a news conference at Yokosuka naval base. Desperate damage control efforts by the crew managed to save the ship, he said.

The Fitzgerald, he said, is salvageable, but that repairs will likely take months. “Hopefully less than a year. You will see the USS Fitzgerald back,” he said.

The bodies of a number of sailors missing from the collision were found Sunday in flooded compartments aboard the guided-missile destroyer.