TERRIBLE DISASTER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1242, 26 September 1911, Page 5

TERRIBLE DISASTER.

FIVE HUNDRED LIVES LOST. FRENCH WARSHIP BLOWN TO PIECES. SERIES OF EXPLOSIONS, By TelesraDh—Pres3 Association— Copyright (Rec. September 26, 0.50 a.m.) Paris, September 25. Another terrible naval disaster has occurred, this time at Marseilles. The battleship Liberte, a vessel of 14,635 tons displacement, completed in 1907 at a cost of ,£1,052,000, has been totally destroyed, with the loss, it is feared, of 500 lives. A iiro broke out at an early hour in the morriing in the vessel's ammunition hold, and a series of fearful explosions followed. Tho first explosion occurred at 5 a.m., and a second and third about an hour later. About a hundred of tho men 6prang iuto the water, and most of these were rescued. Tho last of the explosions broko the Liberte in halves, and she sank in nineteen minutes after it. Tho Liberte was built at St. Nazairo and launched in 1905. Shs canies a comBlcmcnt of 793 men. Slio belongs to a prereadnought cla.-s very much resembling the British Lord Nelsons. Her main armament consists of four 12-inch guns. PREVIOUS DISASTERS. HOW THE JENA WAS LOST. The Trench Navy has long been notorious for its disasters. Tho most serious of theso during the last few years was the explosion on tho Jena at Toulon in 1907. In many quarters the extraordinary frequency of these serious accidents has been attributed to tho admission of undesirable elements into the service. The evil ol admitting convicts into tho navy as seamen, etc., and the undermining of discipline by political influence have bec-n frequently tho subject of controversy in tbo French press. The explosion which destroyed tho 12,000-ton battleship Jena, occurred in dry dock at Toulon, at 1 o'clock on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 12. There were two heavy explosions, which shook Toulon to its'foundations and wrecked the principal buildings nt the arsenal and dockyard. A rain of ste?l fragments from bursting 12in. melinite shells fell over the dockyard and town, killins a number of persons. To add to (he horror of the catastrophe/ thcro wero sncce&ive smaller explosions on tho Jena, due to tho destruction of the after, magazine, and it was. feared ■ at ono time that the battleship Suflren, lying in an adjoining dock, .would bo destroyed likewise. There were 2500 shells on board tha Jena-, which did not explode owing to tha flooding of tbo dock. Tho second explosion was tho more violent. First-class Midshipman Tavera'l said: "The men had resumed work in the storeroom only about ton minutes when they heard a loud explosion. Most of them thought at first that the accident was of a : simplo nature, that tlie Jena had slipped from her stanchions and had struck against tho stonework of the.dock, bnt the men who were on "the bridge and in Hio batteries perceived a great volume of smoke' rising from" the interior of the vessel, and, raising the cry of 'Sauve qui pout!' they fkd.. A moment later a second explosion occurred, far more terrible than tho first, and great tonaues of flnmo «hot out. Immediately afterwards shrieks and cries of distress were hoard from every part of the vessel, and on all sides men threw themselves overboard in order to escape a terrible death on the vessel, many of these sustaining terrible injuries by falling on their heads at' the bottom of the dock. Tho shocks of the explosion wero eo violent that many of the men were dashed against the sides of tho vessel and literally ■ crushed to death.'' . .'...".' Scenes of an appalling (Inscription occurred. Tiro of the ship's 12in. guns were dismounted, and smashing with tremendous force against the sides of tho ship' crushed in their passage a number of the crow into instant death. Many others were burned, to death, while a number were asphyxiated. . Among tho victims was a baby, who was killed at a distanco of a mj!e by a piece of a shell. Arms,'legs, and heads were .carried a distance of ovor a hundred yards, and thesercruesom'e remains were pickod. ,up by horrified men looking for friends or relatives. ' ■ Captain Adigard, who commanded tho Jena, was burnt to death. He.had iust finished lunch, and was in his cabin. The explosion jammed the door of the cabin so that it could not be opened. Captain Adi?ard tried vainly to escape, bnt he could not be rescued in time. Several gallant seamen who wero trying to feree an entrance into the cabin at the moment of the second explosion wero blown to fragments. Afterwards the captain's charred body was found just inside the door. Commandant Vertier, chief of staff of the Second' Division of the Mediterranean Squadron, was also killed, but Rear-Admiral Manceron, whose flagship the Jena was, escaped' with severe burns. He. was at lunch in his cabin when the first, explosion came. The vessel .lay in dry dock, and tho port authorities searched frantically, but vainly, for the keys in order to flood the dock. Finally the battleship La Patrio which was lying just outside the dock, was ordered to open the sluices, by bombardment. She fired two shots. The first went to its appointed goal, but the second wont right over the arsenal wall and out across a road within six feet of a sentry at the gate, and nearly killed a number of people. Eight volunteers were then asked for to open the sluices. Lieutenant Rousse and seven men wero selected,, and the officer himself was the. first to reach the gates, but was killed by a bursting shell. Nothing daunted, his companions continued their work amid a hail o.f projectiles, and luckily they all escaped with slight injuries.