THE FRENCH NAVAL DISASTER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9625, 27 September 1911, Page 5

THE FRENCH NAVAL DISASTER.

VIVID DETALS. LIBEIITE NOW A SHAPELESS MASS. (Bv Electric Telegraph-Copybight.) (PKB PnKBB ABBOOIATION.J PARIS, Sppt, 2b. Further details of tho disaster 'of the French squadron at Toulon, by which the battleship Liberto wiis show that the second squadron, consisting of tho Patrie, Liberie, Democratic, Justice, Veritc, and Republique had been anchored ct Toulon sinco the manoeuvres in order to give the crews participating in the manoeuvres their leave. The Liberto',s full compliment was 30 officers and 700 men, but 140 wero on loavo and were waiting on the jetty to return aboard, They witnessed tho catastrophe. Tho Liberie signalled that, a firo had'broken out forward, and efforts to extinguish it were unavailing. At r35 a.m. muffled explosions followed, and at short intervals three others each louder than the one before. The other warships dispatched bonis to assist, and meanwhile scores of men jumped into tho sea, but many of these hearing tho buglss sound to quarters returned on board. Just before 6 o'clock a cloud of smoiw and a pillar of fire shot up mast high, and a terrific report followed. The ship blew up, her bows rose out of the water, and the keel was seen to twist up lilco a picee of rag. She then sank amidst tho wav)3 thrown up all around by tho explosion, carrying down the bulk of the crew. r lbe mast was tori? out and burled into tho air, coming down upright in the water. The Liberie is nothing now but a shapeless mass, and lies in forty icct of water. Only the upper works and aft bridge is visible. A nuinbei' of boat's crews, before the smoke cleared away, boarded the glowing wreck in search of comrades, and several were rescued from under masses of twisted ironwork. An officer who was hauicd in from under an awning with_ a boathook, has .succumbed. Many survivors aio dazed, and their narratives differ widely Houses were shaken and windows smashed throughout Ihe town, The explosion sent high into the air, fragments of armour plate, shells, and gun mountings which dealt death and destruction on all sides. A witness ashore states that lie saw bodies momentarily quiver high in the air, and then drop into the sea. Many boats were swamped or drawn under the water by suction and the occupants drowned. ' The Republique's turret was hit ?i:d several plates ripped. She shows a lica/y list to starboard. Ono of the Liberty's armour plates alighted on tho Republiquo'js _ quarter deck, crushing through the cabin of an oflicer who. was on leave.

DEFECTIVE POWDER CAUSES EXPLOSION. A REPETITION OF JENA DISASTER.Received Sept. 27, 8.5 a.m. PARIS, Sept. 26. The Liberto's bugler was hurled through the air, and landed aboard tho Republique. He still held tho bugle. Splinters of shell struck the Foudro, a gunnery school vessel, two miles distant, killing tho commander. Mutilated bodies were picked up throughout the day. , An officer declares the fire spread so quickly that it was impossible to flood tho magazines Rescuers all day wero boring holes in tho wrecked vessel's plates, in the hope of rescuing any imprisoned. All the powder in tho Liberto's magazine was freshly shipped, and was likely to remain good for forty months. During the recent hot weather the temperature in tho magazino was above 85 degrees. This was not considered dangerThe ammunition storage was subjected lo special tests, and tho results were entirely satisfactory. It was at first thought that tho firo was due to a short circuit. It is now positively stated that it was duo to decomposition of powder, similar to tho Jena explosion.

THE DEATH ROLL. Received Sept. 27, 8.50 a.m. PARIS. Sept. 26. According lo sonic accounts the first' explosion occurred in a magazine containing ammunition for small guns, The injured included Lieutenant Besson, an Admiral's son. who was found clinging to the Republic's cable.. The dead or missing are officially estimated at from 350 to 400 The admirals who were returning from tho funeral of the victims_ of the recent explosion on the Gloire, viewed tho Liberto's victims, The majority were so charred as to bo unrecognisable. Some were pierced • through and through with fragments of shell. M. Dolcas3C, Minister for Marine, interviewed, said ho believed the Arc originated outside tho magazines. A fire occurred in the evening m tho forward casemate of the battleship Patrie, It was extinguished early, and only slight damago was done.

BALANCE OF POWER ALTERED. LONDON, Sept. 26, , Tlio Times says that Franco's lose is not solely personal. It is a material loss of great' moment and gravity, inasmuch as the sudden extinction o£ so considerable and effective a unit as the Liberto is a strategic disaster, not incapable in certain contingencies (if appreciably affecting tho balance of naval power in Europe, especially in, the Mediterranean. MOMENTARY PANIC. FOLLOWED BY EXHIBITION OF SITREMEST COURAGE. Received Sept. 27, 12,15 p.m. PARIS, Sept. 20. When the. outbreak on tho Liberto was discovered the men wore ordered to flood tho Magazines, but they rushed on deck, declaring that it was certain death to approach the sluices owjng to poisonous fumes emanating from tho magazines. Then the men were ordered to their stations, The panic immediately ceased, and they went to their posts with tho supremest courage. When the other explosion occurred the command was given to leave the ship in good order. This operation being effected with perfect discipline until tho anmhilatory explosion occurred. Many bodies and remains lvavo been recoveretl, but a heap of fifty corpses is visible entangled in the masses of wreckage. A man is alivo in the turret of Hie wrecked warship, and food is being passed to him. ' He states he is surrounded by fifteen bodies. Strenuous efforts are being made to release him. Tho newspapers generally accept 'he theory of spontaneous combustion, but several allege a connection between the fires on the'Liberte and Patrio and' Sabotage at the Brest dockyard. The disaster of the baltleship Jena, referred to above, also occurred in Toulon in tho year 1907. She was a 12-000-ton vessel, and was in the drv-dock. At 1 o clock en the afternoon of Tuesday, March 12, there were two heavy explosions, which shook Toulon to its foundations and wrecked the principal buildings at the arsenal and dockyard. A rain of steel fragments from bursting 12in. melinite shells fell over the dockyard and town, killing a number cf persons, To add to the horror of tho catastrophe there were successive smaller explosions on the Jena- due to tho destruction of tho after magazine, and it was feared at one. time that the battleship Suffren, lying in an adjoining dock, would bo destroyed likewise. There were 2i)00 shells on board the Jena which did not explode owing to the flooding of the dock.