ACCIDENTALLY BLOWN UP

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2474, 29 May 1915, Page 5

ACCIDENTALLY BLOWN UP

THE PRINCESS IRENE

GREAT MANY LIVES LOST ONLY ONE SURVIVOR. London, May 27. The auxiliary steamer Princess Irono was accidentally blown up in Sheerness Harbour.

Seventy-seven dockers perished. London, May 28. It is believed that over S-'OO men were lost in the Princoss Irene.

The Princess Irene was a mine-layer, and belonged to the Canadian-Paoifio Company. It was an internal explosion aiul occurred at 11 o'clock in the morning. She totally disappeared. A stoker. David Wills, was picked up. Ho sustained burns.

Several men in vessels near by were wounded by falling splinters. There' were pathetio scenes outside tho gates, where a notice was posted. Seventy-seven workers lost their liTes in the execution of their duty, at Sheerness shipyard.

[The Princess Irene was of 6000 tone, was owned by the Canadian-Paoifio Railway Company, and was launched last year.]

London, May 27, 11.25 p.m. High Commissioner s report:— The auxiliary steamer Princess Irene was accidentally blown up in Sheerness Harbour this morning, there being only one survivor, out of seventy-eiglit dockyard workmen reported aboard.

A TERRIFIC EXPLOSION. FURTHER DETAILS OF \THE DISASTER.

(Rec. May 28, 9.30 p.m.) London," May 28. Besides tie orew of 200 of the Princess Irene, it is unofficially stated that a large party of rofitters and dockers were aboard. Some ' estimates say that four hundred lives were lost.

Two pillars of flame at intervals of a fow seconds rose to a height of three hundred feet, with a deafening roar. When the smoke cleared there were only fragments of wreckage and corpses of the crew.

The explosion was felt at Maidstone 22 miles away.

An officer aboard a vessel nearby says the Princess Irene was hurled into the air a mile high in ten thousand fragments. He oould distinctly make out the forms of men amidst the flying wreckage. CREW FROM CHATHAM. PRACTICALLY ALL KILLED. (Rec. May 28, 10.30 p.m.) London, May 28.

The Princess Irene was largely manned by men from Chatham, who only left the dockyards twenty-four hours previously, and moored to a buoy 350 yards from the shore.

Wills, who was picked up in the water, was unable to give an account of the accident. He was understood to say that he was in the middle of the explosion, and thinks he must have been blown into the water with tho part of the ship in which he was working. Three other men belonging to the Princess Irene had just gone ashore, otherwise the whole crew would hare' been blown to pieces. Nothing except a portion of the mast marks the place where the Princess Irene was berthed. The Medway is spotted with pieces of wreckage and little bits of human bodies.

The explosion was severer than that of the Bulwark. Houses near the quay seemed to rock under the shock.

SHOOK FELT MILES AWAY,

FRAGMENTS CARRIED FOUR MILES. (Rec. May 28, 11.15 p.m.)

London, May 28,

Two little girls playing on a verandah ufc Port Victoria ivero struck by falling wreckage and killed. Places ten miles south-west of Sheerness were covered with falling fragments. Houses at Sittingbourno were shaken, and wiudows broken. The ground trembled .like an earthquake, and women rushed into the street with their children, fearing a Zeppelin raid. Several were injured at Sittingbourne. A boot, a collar, a tie, and a pound of butter fell in a garden at Rainham, four miles distant.

Two dockers returning to the Prince6s Irene in a Government pinnace state that they were obliged to take refuge in a cabin from the rain of burning debris. When they were able to emergo thero was no sign of the vessel on which they were working an hour earlier. Sho was'blown to the ininuiest fragments.

There was little distuxhance_ in the water, which was as black as ink.