GUN EXPLOSION

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 260, 30 July 1929, Page 11

GUN EXPLOSION

THE DISASTER ON CRUISER DEVONSHIRE SEVENTEEN MEN DEAD OFFICIAL INQUIRY TO BE HELD (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, July 27. The Secretary of the Admiralty announces that a serious gun accident occurred aboard the cruiser Devonshire during firing practice in the Eastern Mediterranean on July 20. The first official list of casualties shows one officer and seven other ranks, Royal Marines, were killed or died of wounds, and 13 marines and Naval ratings were injured. The officer killed is Captain John Bath. Unofficially it is feared that the accident was caused by the blowing out of one of the new 81n. guns during exercises at Skiathos in the Aegean Sea. The Devonshire proceeded at once to Volo, in Thessaly, to transfer the Injured to the hospital ship Maine. She then steamed for Malta, where an official Inquiry will be opened. The Devonshire is one of the most up-to-date cruisers in commission, having been launched as recently as October, 1927, and commissioned in March, 1929. On her standard displacement of 10,090 tons she mounts eight 81n. guns, four 31n. anti-aircraft guns, and four three-pounder and two twopounder pompoms. Rugby, July 28. Four more men have died as the result of the explosion in a gun turret in the British cruiser Devonshire. This brings the death roll to 17. The funeral of ten of the victims took place at Volo, in Greece, yesterday. Full military honours were rendered by the Second Army Corps of the Greek Army. IMPRESSIVE FUNERALS AT VOLO (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph,—Copyright) Australian Press Association. Athens, July 28. The Devonshire landed the bodies of the victims of the explosion at Volo, where the funerals were most impressive. The townspeople rendered homage to the Greek and British flags at half-mast. The Queen Elizabeth, with Admiral Field, is coming, presumably to hold an inquiry.