KILLED BY A SHELL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14531, 19 November 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

KILLED BY A SHELL.

DURING GUNNERY EXPERIMENTS. " Accidental death" was the verdict returned at the inquest on the body of Alfred Morrell, engineer of the War Department steamer, Sir Frederick Walker, who was killed on board the ship by a shell during experimental firing. The vessel was one of two engaged in towing targets at sea for the gunners at Bovisand Fort. < .. According to the evidence, the target at the time of the mishap was about, four hundred yards behind the Sir Frederick Walker, which was distant some eight hundred yards from the fort. Lieutenant-Colonel Cockburn, chief of the school of gunnery, superintending the firing, said the practice was ordered by the War Office for the purpose of testing some tracers of American invention which were attached to the shells. As to the cause of the accident, they could only theorise. It might be due to three thingsone, that' the shell broke up and ricochetted and fell short, turning off at an extensive angle on ricochetting. It was also possible that a shell might break in halves, and in that case they could not tell where the fragments might go. The third theory was that a gunner might have laid his gun on the ship instead of on the target. During the shooting four or five of the tracers failed to act, and there was no doubt that the one that killed deceased was one of them.