THE CORDELIA DISASTER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1012, 24 July 1891, Page 12

THE CORDELIA DISASTER.

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENE. The Sydney Morning Herald, on the day following the arrival of the Cordelia, pub. lished a very full and graphic description of the disaster, and of the excitement in Sydney when the news became known. We extract the following : Rapidly the report spread in the city, creating profound sensation everywhere. Almost before the gangways were over the ship’s side scores of boats, some from the other warships, and many from the shore, were ranged on the port and starboard of the white painted hull of the corvette. _ Within a few minutes of making fast Captain Grenfell was seen to leave the Cordelia and steer for the man-of-war steps. The greatest eagerness was evinced at Fort Macquarie Point, where the bluejackets lauded, to learn the facts, and anxious faces amongst the crowd were to be seen—the faces of relatives of some of the crew. “ How many are killed?” “Is it true?” “Tell us the names and similar queries and requests were asked by the score. Then it was ascertained that the list of the dead included two officers, a gunner, a sailor, a little cabin boy, and a private in the infantry. Following the first boats from the ship came a boat containing the bleeding and wounded, tho very badly injured. These included, one man whose life is despaired of, another with critical injuries and a thigh broken. In all there are six. The scene as they landed at the’ man-of-war steps was indeed an impressive one. Some of the faces of the victims were scorched and cut. On one was a pallor like death. With a tenderness inexpressible were these poor fellows borne from the boat to tho ambulance van. A second boat arrived soon after, with a further contingent of the wounded. These numbered seven, and included three young midshipmen, a leading seaman, an ordinary seaman, an A. 8., and a marine. They represented the slightly injured. An almost breathless silence prevailed amongst the crowd of onlookers as the first boatload of wounded were conveyed up the steps and laid in the ambulance waggons, a silence which deepened as the comrades of the wounded whispered good-bye in the ears of those with broken limbs and many gaping cuts and wounds. The scene on board was little less affecting. There is a strong attachment between mates on board a man of war, which to the landsman appears strange, and is little understood, It is in a time of trouble, a period of danger, or, as in the present instance, a time of mourning,that this warm brotherly feeling on board a British ship is so unmistakable. A. petty officer, for instance, yesterday, speaking of one of the officers who was blown to pieces in the explosion, made use of the expression that “ You couldn’t find a man aboard the ship but what would have doue anything for him ; everybody loved him and when describing the explosion and the death of the little boy, who was sitting on the skylight many paces away from the bursting gun, the same mau was quite overcome with emotion. , Nor was Captain Grenfell less affected. Going over the details of the accident he repeatedly mentioned, with great feeling and manifestation of real tender hearted sympathy, the noble qualities of the viotims and his worst fears that the dreadful sufferings of some of the wounded of his crow would prove mote than they could bear. That much suffering would follow from the bursting of a heavy gun amongst a crowded ship’3 deck is apparent. The foroe exerted to shatter into small fragments a mass of steel from three to four inches in thickness must equal the combined energy of many guns discharged in the ordinary way. Aside from the murderous effects of the flying blocks of metal, the concussion in the atmosphere was sufficiently great to twist heavy doors off their hinges on board the Cordelia, so that frail human beings within reach of the influence of the disaster weie hopelessly doomed. Men were stunned that were far away from the accident, and the vessel shook as though a terrible earthquake had ocourrod. Every bit of glass about the ship was broken, skylights were smashed by the atmosphere as completely as they could be by heavy bodies of water breaking on board. No wonder consternation reigned, and men were paralysed by the shock. Even the ship’s powerful machinery was shaken, and the splinters and, pieoe3 of wreckage falling into the engineroom caused a stoppage of the engines. The accident took place soon after the vessel left Suva, Fiji, for Noumea, It was the regulation date for the quarterly shot aP l * s kell target practice. The practice had proceeded all day, the several guns’ crews taking turn as required, On board the Cordelia there are

five of these 6m. Armstrongs on eaoh side of the upper deck. Tho ship is built with a poop, and it was the second gun from the break of the poop on the port side that burst. What caused it to burst is not known, and may never be known, but on the “ racer” (the brass half-* circle frame upon which the carriage of the gun is worked) there now lies a pile of jagged pieces of the breech and muzzle of an Armstrong, weighing several tons. Directly opposite and on either side the gun port or embrasure, the bulwarks and topgallant bulwarks are broken and burst. The position of the gun is nearer to the poop than the forecastle, but it is a feature of the explosion that the greatest force of the burst went forward, downward, and at an angle of 90 degrees upward. Some pieces of the metal certainly flew aft, and just missed the captain. One such piece al3o struck and disabled a midshipman, but the five men who were standing at the left side of the guu, the side nearest to aft in the ship, escaped with comparatively slight injuries, whilst death and terrible havoc fell upon those who were forward of the guu or iu the right side of the breach. One mass of metal went straight downwards through the deck into the 'tween decks, and badly wounded two men. Pieces flew high into tho air, 200 ft from the guncarriage, and tho iron casing round the funnel was torn open by the flying fragments like so much paper. The explosion of a shell from a 100 ton gun would be as nothing compared with the bursting of this rifled cannon on board the Cordelia. The sight of torn and twisted ironwork about the ship’s deck is one to be remembered ; but even it is cast into the shade by the scene presented at the wreck of the gun itself. That a weapon of such enormous strength could be broken into blocks of metal of from 12 to ISiu in size with the quickness that is represented by a flash of powder is bewildering to a degree. Many pieces went seawards with a velocity of a rifle ball, leaving only that pile of solid blocks of broken steel to show that a gun, once supposed to ha indestructible, stood on that part of the deck of the warship.