THE PRINCESS IRENE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 126, 29 May 1915, Page 5

THE PRINCESS IRENE

A FRIGHTFUL EXPLOSION. FELT OVER TWENTY MILES AWAY LONDON, 28th May. Besides the crew of 250 on the Princess Irene, it is unofficially stated that there was a large party of refitters and dockers aboard. Some estimates say that four hundred lives were lost. Two pillaTs of flame) 7 at intervals of a few seconds, rose to a height of three hundred feet. There was a deafening roar, and when the smoke cleared there were only fragments of wreckage and the corpses of j the crew j The explosion was felt at Maidstone, twenty-two miles away. An officer^ aboard a vessel nearby says that the Princess Irene was hurled into the air a mile high in ten thousand fragments. He could distinctly make out the forms of men amidst the flying wreckage. HIGH COMMISSIONER'S REPORT The High Commissioner reports : — LONDON, 27th May, 11.25 p.m. The auxiliary steamer Princess Irene was accidentally blown up in Sheerness Harbour this morning. There is only one survivor out of seventy- eight dockyard workmen reported to be aboard. ONE SURVIVOR. LONDON, 28th May. The Princees Irene was largely manned from Chatham. She only left the dockyards twentyfour hours previously, and was at a buoy three hundred and fifty yards from the shore. Wills was picked up from the water, and was unable to give any account of the accident. He was understood to say that in the middle of the explosion he thinks he must have been blown into the water with the part of the ship on which he was working. Three other men belonging to the Princess Irene had just gone ashore. The whole of the crew on board were blown to pieces. Nothing except a portion of a mast marks the place where the Princess Irene was berthed. The Medway is spotted witli pieces of wreckage and human remains - The explosion was more severe than that on the Bulwark. Houses near the quay seemed to rock under the shock. WRECKAGE THROWN TEN MILES. LONDON, 28th May. When tho Princess Irene explosion occurred, two little girls were playing on a verandah . at Port Victoria, and were struck by falling wreckage and killed. Places t ten miles south-west of Sheerness were covered with falling fragments. Houses in Sittingbourne were shaken and the windows broken. The ground trembled like an earthquake. Women rushed into the street with thpir children, fearing a Zeppelin raid. Several people were injured at Sittingbourne. A boot, . collar, tie, and a pound of butter fell in a garden at Rainham, four miles distint. Two dockers -who were returning to the Princess Irene in a Government pinnace, state thit they were obliged to take refuge in the cabin from the rain of burning debris. When they were able to emerge there was no sign of the vessel, on which they h?d been working an hour earlier. She was blown to the minutest fragments, and there was little disturbance in the water, which was as black as ink. BLOWN TO MATCHWOOD. LONDON, 28th May An eye-witness said the wreckage iesembled 'matchwood. He saw one of the men swimming with a lifebelt, and thought he was a survivor, but found he belonged to another ship. The man had jnmoprl overboard, believing his own ship was doomed. A seaman who was on the deck of a neighbouring ship narrates that he saw a huge flame springing from the deck of the Princess Irene, followed by smoke. Then came a series of crackling explosions, followed by a great explosion. A great volume of smoke and coal dust rose into the air, and the Px-incess Irene simply melted away. The explosion seemed to stun everyone for a few moments ; then boat crews were ordered to pick up survivors. Two men working on neighbouring barges were saved^ but several others were killed, including the crew of five men belonging to a harbour launch which was lying alongside the Princess Irene. LOADED WITH MINES. ' LONDON, 28th May. The Princess Irene was loaded with mines.