FOUR SAILORS INJURED

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28540, 20 March 1958, Page 17

FOUR SAILORS INJURED

Gun Accident On French Sloop (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 19. Four sailors of the French sloop Francis Garnier were injured today, one seriously, when she was firing a 21-gun salute to the New Zealand flag near the Wellington harbour entrance, 30 minutes before she berthed. Squads of sailors were firing 40 mm. Bofors guns in salute when a round of blank ammunition in one failed to fire and blew back, burning four men. Leading Seaman Henri Dubos had his right hand amputated in the Wellington Public Hospital this afternoon. He suffered multiple flash burns, lacerations of the face and arms, a compound fracture of the right hand, a fractured left leg, and shock. His condition is serious. The three other injured—Seaman Jean Claude Rouzeaux, Leading Seaman Jean Migel, and Leading Seaman Jacques Tupet—are progressing satisfactorily from minor injuries. The warship sent an S.O.S. for an ambulance to be sent to the wharf. The Wellington Harbourmaster (Captain D. M. Todd) was aboard the warship as pilot and he quickly assisted in arranging facilities.

The Francis Garnier completed the salute. Ashore, as the Francis Garnier berthed, the police cleared the wharf and ambulances stood by. The injured seamen were carried ashore on stretchers, limbs bandaged and faces blackened.