SHELL EXPLOSION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 69, 20 February 1937, Page 9

SHELL EXPLOSION.

ON AMERICAN VESSEL. SIX LIVES LOST. SAN PEDRO (California), Feb. 18. The explosion of a sin. gun shell in the training ship Wyoming killed six men and injured 10, according to a radio message from Admiral Hepburn to the Associated Press. The Wyoming, which was constructed ill 1912, is now used only for training purposes. She was off San Clemente Island at the time of the explosion, being engaged in manoeuvres in which most of the fleet was also participating. The Wyoming, accompanied by the flagship, the Pennsylvania, later arrived in port, and the injured, six of whom are seriously hurt, were removed to a hospital-ship. The arm of one man was amputated, and a priest administered the last rites to two who are believed to be dying. Among the dead are Captain Edward Trumble, of the Marine Corps, who is believed to have been directing the firing. The others were enlisted marines.

The tragedy occurred during the final manoeuvres of four days’ secret exercises in which 12 ships and many aeroplanes, 3701) marines and 750 soldiers were engaged, with 100 vessels shielding the shooting grounds from the public. It is learned that a shell exploded while being loaded into the breech of the gun which was firing to cover the operations of landing parties from small boats attempting to land in the face of gunfire from ail imaginary enemy. Officers and witnesses said that the pi\vder charge, bursting in the imprtiierly closed breech, caused a blast will'll sent fragments of razor-sharp sp (liters of metal through the bodies of uV' gun crew and against tlic bulklien^fi. Itk*j_ announced that a Naval Board inquiry' - ?,-ill be named to sit aboard the Wyoming, probably to-morrow. This is the first such naval disaster since July 28, 1936, when two sailors were killed and nine injured in a gun explosion.