THE WALLAROO DISASTER

Evening Star, Issue 12094, 15 January 1904, Page 3

THE WALLAROO DISASTER

GRAPHIC NARRATTTES. [From Oint Smxhai Cowissr-oicDKsrr.] - SYDNEY, January 9. Australia has been profoundly moved by the terrible disaster which took "place on the warship Wallaroo on Wednesday while proceeding from Jervis Bay to Hobart. . A great sensation was at first created when, through a signal being mistaken at Montague Island, the news was circulated that there were forty-three fatalities. The true facte were not ascertained until the return of the warship to Sydney, and there was considerable relief when ifc became known thai only four men had succumbed. The circumstances of their untimely end were, kowever, of such a painful character that much sympathy was evoked. The long period that elapsed between the signalling , wd the arrival of the Wallaroo in port was one of great anxiety; but a feeling was prevalent from the first that some mistake must have been made. A pathetic scene was presented yesterday morning as the warship slowly steamed up the harbor, watched by the sad-visaged crowds of peo?_f j ■ laied tho sliOTes o Pl»site Garden isfond, the naval rendezvous. Details of the disaster will have reached your readers by cable, but some extracts from the local newspaper accounts will prove of interest. The WaEaroo, it appears, left Jervi* Bay, where she had been having shot practice, in company with the Tauranga. for Hobart, on the afternoon of last Tuesday. Both vessels steam-: d south, ;ind by lunch tnne on Wednesday were a s '-<c&nr2; arable distance below Green Cape. A couple of hours later those on deck on the Wallaroo noticed a great cloud of steam and water splash skyward out of the stokehold ventilators, and immediately there was the vibrant, hissing roar of escaping steam. The signal was instantly rung from the bridge to stop the engines, and at the same moment a score of bluejackets, sprang into the depths below to see what had happened and to help their comrades in danger. The cries of desperately-hurt men ascended from below, and for an instant a sensation of impending calamity gripped the ship. But the rush of steam diminished, and the vessel floated upright without apparent disablement, and gradually the disaster was seen lo be local m its effects.

Before the officers and men had time to realise this, a man, blind, staggering, and scalded almost beyond recognition, groped his way out of the engine room hatchway and collapsed on the deck. Instantly he was surrounded by a dozen tender helpers and carefully and gently—for every touch was agoriy—lifted to a place of safety. It was Hall the chief stoker, who had fled appalled before the dreadful rush of steam { n^ e lutely blmded, had found his way, as it were by through the room to the open air on deck. Poor fellow It was seen a fc once fiat his case was quite hopeless He was Eterally peeled with 1 the steam all over. In much less time than it £kes to tell it other men came ttunbW up tS" 1 OW - were aU *»% scafiei ihey knew hfctle of what had happened: borne of them conld not speak, lone of those who cwdd gasped out that the front of a boiler had blown out. One of the men, Sandow, came on deck tnrtragh an emergency escape. Ho was scakfed about the head and ams. [Sandow rUed feom his injuries on the 12th. 1 Another came through the hatch amidships, finding us way as qmckry as possible to the deck 1^J a f?' , But **"* stea ' n «** boiling S2? 4 read y dODe and tnree of the brave fellows who fought their way up m spite of the most terrible injures died shortly afterwards in the sick

When the men who jumped from the deck below at the first sign of the disaster reached the stokehold where the boiler had blown out they found the body of one stoker lying m about a foot of boiling wsteron the fl oor . The worst of the steam tOz. »? tune but there was a foot or 18in of boiling, hissing water on the floor of the stokehold. A angle glance sufficed to show that the great boiler had belched its load of scalding steam and boiling water out upon the unfortunates who •were feeding the furnaces. The caose could s°* w*n be seen, nor, indeed, was it looked for. That was to come later. Sea boots were tteown down to the rescue party, and, tewing donned these, they plunged into the boiling water, from which they quickly pulled the body of the stoker who bad beenunable to escape. It proved to be that Moorc > bad apparently been feflled instantly. He was quite dead when picked up. All the other stokers had mads thenescape, some, as already shown, only to BHecumb, some, as already shown, only to others to survive to spend weary days and weeks in the hospital. When it was ascertained that all the men had either escaped or been taken from the stokehold, the engineers sent flushes of rait water through the stokehold to cool it off, and then a thorough inspection was made. It was then found that the top of the combustion chamber had collapsed, allowing the contents of the bo2er to escape into the furnace. The steam here acted as an injector, and forced the boning water out into the stokehold, blowing the ashpan with great force up against the bulkhead several feet away. It is surmised that this ashpan struck Stoker Moore in its passage kfflmg inn instantly. The stokehold at once filled with the escaping steam and boiling water, and there was literally no escape for tiie unfortunate men who happened to be at that end of the boiler. They were knocked down by the steam into the water below, and it was only their great nerve and hardihood that permitted them to escape by the ways they knew so well from that mfenio. The men at the other end of the boiler were enabled to scramble into comparative safety into bunkers and Mner places. a survivor's story. miraculous escape from death. stokers shelter in the BUNKERS. A grimy, toil-marked stoker, with bis left arm swathed in oil-stained bandagesone of the survivors—told an interesting story of the awful experiences of the men in the stokehold at the •time of the explosion. His name is Albert Dorren, and he was on duty in the after stokehold at the tune.

_ There are four boilers in the ship," he raid, "two of which are fired at the fore end and two at the after end. I was working with five others aft, while forward were the men who were killed or injured.. The boilers are bedded end to end, and are separated by a bulk head through which is a passage connecting the compartments. The port boiler aft was not in use, and a stoker earned Pretty and myself were stoking that on the starboard side. I can't tell yon how it happened, or much about the poor fellows at the other end. I heard no explosion. There was just a noise as if rteam was being blown off one of the boilers, and the next instant there was a rash of steam and fire along the passageway. Pretty was more directly in the line •" n ' and he was blown from my eide, while I was knocked backwards, and fell over a backet. I Lid no idea of what bad happened, and there was no time to think. I scrambled to the nearest bunker, crept mside, and threw myself face downwards on the coal. It occurred to me that the steam would rise, and that by keeping low down I would escape; and, thank God, fhafa what happened. Scalded my arm' Well yes. I did get a little hurt. When the first rush came I put my arm up to shield my race, but untfl the excitement had subaded I was not aware of the fact h*. J: b T ad , b * en m y "X 1,16 than scorched. Pretty, I afterwards found, had done the same as I had, scrambled into a bunker and laid on the coal until the steam had tleared. It was only a few seconds before the steam had almost gone, but after it came the boißng water. I knew from rhat had happened to us aft that the un-

fortunate fellows in the fore stokehold jsrexe done for. By stepping on pieces of coal I managed to get along the passage to the other stokehold, where the water was | washing from side to side, and,men from \ above were lifting a body from the plates. It was the chief stoker, who had been killed outright, and had fallen into the , water, and been practically boiled. Some of the others had managed to reach deck, but there were still two who were badly , scalded and were struggling to keep clear of the water. Fortunately there was plenty of aid, and they were rescued as soon as possible, though they were so badly injured that they died before night. I should say that the accident happened at about two o'clock, -but as to how it happened I can say nothing. I have been told that the crown of the combustion chamber fell in, and that the end of the boiler blew out, carrying the fire and ashes into the stokehold and filling the whole place with steam There was not a big head of steam on at the time, and we were only doing five or six knots, so that the cause of the accident is not apparent Except for the presence of the water, which was soon pumped out, the stokehold showed no signs of the terrible tragedy. If you could go below now—which you can t, by the way—yon would see nothing to indicate that so severe on accident had occurred. Of course everything possible was done for the men who were injured, but there was no hope for three of them, and they died in the sick bay. Of the others, all except my mate, Pretty, are in a very bad way." NARRATIVE BY-A SEAMAN. A HERO'S DKATH. !!* never wisu to pe2 another sight like it," said one of tho crew, describing his experiences on tha fateful Wednesday afternoon. According to his account, the first intimation those on deck received of something being wrong in the fore stokehold was the presence of steam and ashes in the air, en-' velopmg the middle of the vessel 'and shutting out the view. At the time about half the ship's company, which is about 212, were below in their bunks. Ther<- was no explosion, and many of the sleeping crew did not hear of the accident till hours after it occurred. The first intimation came in the form of a loud hiss, and then the air became laden with rfeam, vapor, and ashes: The hot ashes were bslched up from the first of two funnels, the scene of the accident being directly below it, and the hot dust blown about set fire to some tarpaulin stretched out on the after-deck Volunteers were at once at work, rendering what assistance was possible in the bubbling stokehold. It was impossible for any to go down into the scalding hot water without sea boots, and numbers of brave fellows had to stand idly by on deck. Poor Sandow, one of "the injured men, was discovered trying to crawl through (he emergency escape, where he was stuck when rescued, being in a frightfully scalded state. He was unable to articulate, and merely groaned. Chief Stoker Hall, a married man with four children, died heroically. He was quite blind as he staggered up "on deck. Ho gasped out: "I am finished," and asked if there was anybody killed. " Thank God," he feebly muttered when informed that only two had been killed, that being the record at the time. The poor fellow soon .afterwards expired, being a most pitiable object with bis scalded face and body. The skin hung from him in strips—a sight which the narrator declared in horrified accents i.e hoped never to witness again. When the first party of rescuers got below they found the two other injured men in the coal bunkers, into which they had crawled when the hissing steam drove them away. The escaping steam penetrated to the men as they lay in the bunkers, though they were both scalded before thev -ot there. Thomas Pretty was injured The worse of the two, and both he and Atkins presented an awful appearance when rescued. Neither of the three rescued men were able to speak, and could but groan The rescuing party saw that the first man killed, who was found with the boiling water washing him, had been bruised on the head, apparently through the ashpan striking him as it flew from beneath the furnace door. Jnst before Pretty, one of the injured men, left England his wife presented him with a child, a fact of which be was justlv proud. The ship's company had onlv been together about a month, so that the men had not had much opportunity of becoming intimately acquainted with each other. The ages of the crew range from seventeen to thirty years, the average being abouttwen'.vthree years. Aa they were standing bv on deck after the arrival of the Wallaroo, waiting to lower the wounded men into the ambulance boat, a number of them looked mere striplings, albeit stalwart enough. Wilfred deal, the second who was lulled, was a great favorite with his companion:;. who describe him as lively as a cricket. At Jervis Bay, where about*a week was spent 6y the crew, rowing races were indulged in every afternoon.

The Tauranga was signalled to shortly after the accident, and the medical staff of that boat reinforced that available on the Wallaroo, the injured men receiving every assistance. "When the Wallaroo decided to return to Sydney the Tauranga signalled to know whether the Wallaroo wanted her companion boat to act as convoy, and tJiis not being deemed necessary, the Tauranga continued on her course to Tasmania. On the trip back the Wallaroo ured the boilers in the after-hold, the fore-hold being left exactly as it was immediately after the accident occurred. With the exception of (.he displaced ashpan, the whole boiler was ratact, though a few steel stays had bsen ■wrenched out of position. It was not ;in explosion that occurred, one of the pipes having simply burst and caused an outrash of steami and boiling water. Nine men in all were at the time supposed to be on duty in the stokehold, two of them being temporarily away. These two thus had a most fortunate escape. ANOTHER ACCOUNT. One of the men on- the Wallaroo supplied the following narrative : " The accident happened, as near as I ran remember, about two o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. The Tauranga was on our bean: at the time, and we were over 200 miles out, on our way to HobarU Suddenly it was noticed that a tremendous body" of black smoke shot out of one of the funnels, and the decks were at once covered with soot. Almost immediately the ship became shrouded in steam, and it was known that something serious was amiss. The sailors rushed towards the stokehold, from which came the groans of the wounded stokers below. Owing to the hissing steam penetrating everywhere, it was almost impossible for a time to get at the. unfortunates. "The chief engineer, Lieutenant Glasspole, made several heroic attempts to bring out the wounded, and also arranged to cool the stokehold with flushes of salt water. There must have been' a foot and a-half of water in the stokehold. The heat was intense, and it was extremely difficult for sailors who did not know their way about a stokehold to get down. However, there was no lack of enthusiastic workers, and eventually the men below were carried ap. One of them was found to have had the back of his head blown' in. He was quite dead. Three others, who appeared to ba almost boiled, died on Wednesday evening. ; Another three were so badly scalded that it was not expected they would live until we reached Sydney, but this morning the ship's doctor gave a hope of their recovery. Two others were badly burned, but they will recover, and two were only slightly injured. " When- the Tauranga got the signal that aa accident occurred she hove-to, and sent her doctor and a nursing staff aboard, so that! our own doctor and staff were ably assisted. She afterwards continued on her voyage. "The four poor fellows who succumbed, were buried at sea last. evening, when we were about fifty miles down the coast from Sydney. The service was a very sad and impressive one, and the captain broke down completely. What made him feed so teas rihly cut up was the added fact that the men had so recently lef£ their homes in England, full of enthusiasm and promise. This phase of the situation was borne in deeply upon the officers and seamen who took part in the service, for although they had not been long enough on the ship to become intimately acquainted with the poor i,feßw» who were being buried, they felt,

that ifc was a sad commencement of the ■ship's fresh career. "An examination -was;of; coarse mads of the boiler, and although I caimot say much on the subject I understand that the front of the boiler was blown out in some "way, although the boiler itself did not appear by any means to be a total-wreck. "The chief engineer performed some gallant work in stopping the rushing steam and in assisting to recover the injured. He was a good deal blistered himself in his efforts. As soon as matters had been qmetencd down we steamed about six knots hour, and made for Sydney. " To give you an idea of how badly some of them were affected by the onrush of hot, scalding steam, one poor fellow, when his boots were taken off by the rescuers, had to suffer the skin of his feet coming away almost as clean as if he had been wearing a pair of white socks."