STOKEHOLD INFERNO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13781, 20 June 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

STOKEHOLD INFERNO.

SEAMEN SWATHED IN A TONGUE OF FLAME. Gium details of the fatal-boiler Lube accident on 'board H.M.s; Britannia* .-wpMsf; given at" the inquest, at Portsmouth upon, the bodies of Able Seaman Thain, 19; Stoker Now, 20: and Stoker Edmunds, 25. All were single men. The mishap happened while the Britannia was doing a power (rial, supplementing the use of coal in her water-tube boilers with oil fuel sprayed on the flaming coals by means of steam injectors. New was stationed as fireman at No. 3 boiler, in "B" . boiler-room, itbd Tliain way opening the door for him, while Edmunds was going round to all boilers, using a rake to keep the tires from clinkering. " It. happened all at once,'.' wild ChiefStoker James,. who was in charge of tha boiler-room. " I heard an explosion, and the flame* burst out. and (surrounded the men. There was one burst of flame, and then •water came out." Artificer Engineer Edgar Francis Smith said he gave prompt orders to increase the speed of the forced draught* fan, with the object of.keeping the flames back in. the furnace against the efflux of steam. " But for this," said Smith, "it would not have been possible for anyone to get there." In calm tones Engineer Lieutenant If rater Shaw, described the horrible inferno into which the stokehold was converted when the boiler tube burst. The draught plate opposite the burst tube was blown right out into the stokehold, it being torn clean away from its fastenings. The oil flame followed in a dazzling sheet, shooting out fifteen to twenty feet. Men standing on either side of the giant tongue of flame escaped unscathed,' but the dead men were right in its line. They went up to the mess deck practically unassisted', but one of them collapsed immediately. " New was horribly burned, the skin being stripped from his fingers to his shoulders, and toes to hips. Thain also suffered severely, but." said Staff-Surgeon Eraser, of Haslar Naval Hospital. "we had hopes of Edmunds, but he collapse: suddenly. Death in each ease was due to shock." Lieut. Shaw, when asked to discuss the cause of the accident, declined, on the ground that the matter was before a court of justice; but Coroner Goble told the lieutenant sharply that his court was a public court* of justice, and if he ktienthe cause of the accident he was bound tc answer. ;.-,... Witness then explained that the tube had overheated, probably beyond red-hot stage in one particular part, and swelled so much that it burst. The tube was. four inches in diameter, but swelled so much that the hole in it was eight inches by ten, and the edges were thinned oil to the thickness of paper. .Witness was tin able to give the cause of .'bursting. It mieht have been an internal defect! The jury returned a verdict of " Accidental death," and expressed tho opinion that no one was to blame. It. transpired during the 'inquest that there was a second boiler explosion on the Britannia almost at the same time, but no one was dangerously injured.