THE GUN COTTON EXPLOSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8538, 11 April 1891, Page 5

THE GUN COTTON EXPLOSION.

f.BY TELEGRAPH.-— ASSOCIATION.] '■ ■ Wellington, Friday.™ At the adjourned inquest to-clay into the circumstances attending the deaths of the men killed by the guncotton explosion at Shelly Bay, a letter which Captain Powell had sent to the Under-Secretary for Defence with reference to the explosion was read. In it Captain Powell protested against such statements bsing made that it '":■ was usual or customary to use ashes or solder when making up primers or charges of guncotton. No ashes, solder, or pitch had ever been used by him for such purposes on his station, and ho wished to state that under no circumstances would he consent to the use of those methods by anyone under his control, and by taking the latter-mentioned steps he thought he had very probably averted disaster on more than one occasion in' the past. It wa3 contrary to their instructions to use solder or heat of any kind in making up primers or charges for any purpose. These dangerous methods were quite unnecessary, as they bad perfectly proper and safe appliances for making up charges at short notice. In the course of examination Powell said that he had only written the letter in order to allay anxiety, because he thought that if the explanation wore nob made the authorities might have a fear that similar disasters were inevitable. No one . asked him to write the lettor, and it was nob written out of spleen. Cecil Treherne, gunnery lieutenant of H.M.s. Curacoa, gave evidence as to the service methods of filling the primers. He considered it would be very unsafe for anyono to solder a tin after it was charged with guncotton, and he had never before heard of such a thing being done. Even if careful men used the soldering iron heated to 340 degrees the danger of explosion would exist, even although there was a threeinch layer of ashes on the top of the guncobton. He would not consider it safe to take a canister 'of dry guncotton into a smithy, and such a proceeding would be highly dangerous. He had visited the smithy at the torpedo depot, Shelly Bay, and would say that a man had no business to have any guncotton in such a place. The heat of the smithy might be sufficient to cause an explosion. The fact of some other tins being successfully soldered did not alter his opinion as to the danger of the method, as he looked upon it as sheer luck that there had not been previous accidents. He thought it was doubtful whether a spark from a man's pipe could percolate the ashes in a live state, and ignite the cotton. In answer to Mr. Skerrett, Treherne said he had visited Shelly Bay before the disaster, and had found everything in good order, the place being clean and things compact. The inquest will be resumed to-morrow morning. The coroner is of opinion that ib may be possible to do away with the examination of Cornwall, if the statement he made to commissioners inquiring into the accident is produced at the inquest. It is understood that Cornwall has not yet been made aware of the death of his comrades. Captain Castle, of H.M.s. Rapid, and Lieutenant White, of H.M.s. Orlando, who have been conducting an inquiry into the circumstances connected with the disastrous guncotton explosion at Shelly Bay, left for Auckland by the steamer Tarawera this evening, where their report will be drawn «P-