THIRTEEN MEN KILLED.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 310, 24 September 1908, Page 7

THIRTEEN MEN KILLED.

BIG GUN BURSTS.' ON A FRENCH CRUISER. (HI TEr.EOKArU—PEESS ASSOCIATION—COrrEIGUT.) (Rec. September 23, 9.50 p.m.) Paris, Septembor 23. Just after a gunnery class of recruits had concluded firing practice, a 7.6ift. gun on tho French. armoured oruisor Latouche-Tre- ' ville (4681 tons) burst, killing thirteen men and mortally injuring two. The accident occurred off Toulon. SERIES OF ACCIDENTS: A REIGN OF ANARCHY. In the matter of fatal explosions in connection with guns and boilers, a heavy fatality seems to pursue the French Navy. The Jena disaster was the greatest, but there have been many lessor ones. On August 12, at Toulon, a disastrous explosion occurred on the training ship La Couronne. i One account states that tho brcwih of a 6.5 in. gun burst, killing four men and wounding twenty others. According i? ?® count ( appears most probable that the accident was caused not by the blowing out of a breech-lock, but by a sholl exploding lmniediately after leaving the mouth of the cannon. This was tho third accident of the kind on tho same ship within three yaars. Tho first occurred on April 20, 1906, when, during gunnery praotice off Salins d'Hyeres, irith a 6.5 in. gun,'the breech-piece blew out after firing forty rounds, owing to tho premature explosion of a cartridge. Three men were killed. Tho second accident took place on August 3, 1907, when a percussion cap, being warped in the closing up of the breech, fired the cartridgo, blowing out the breeoh and killing three men. The Couronne js an obsolete armoured cruiser, used as a gunnery school for ! officers and gunners, and having every pattorn of naval gun on board. • • The commission which investigated the Jena tragedy added to its report:—"Further, we have_ met with nothing but antagonism and divisions in the navy. Naval constructors, engineers, and active officers all aot in complete independence of each other, and thero is no superior authority'with power to units thoso three divergent forces in action. Administrative anarchy' reigns in the organisation. Tho officers complain .that they recoive ho, orders, and indeed the heartrending inefficiency of tho central potvor is tho cause of tho growing enfceblement of our naval forces. It is the system of irresponsibility and general indifference that leads to ' disasters such. as that of the Jena, and will bring more in its train, 'let us view without weakness .tho melancholy spectacles of the defeats of "Spanish and Russian • fleets, but let us swear to re-, establish _ authority, discipline,' vigilance, ■ and responsibility in the navy."