DISASTER ON A BATTLESHIP
. THIRTY-TWO' MEN BLOWN TO PIECES. Detail? are now to hand of the terrible disaster which occurred on the United States battleship Missouri in the middle of April, by which thirty-two men lost their lives. , The Missouri was on the target- range with the Texas and Brooklyn at practice, when a charge of. powder in the 12-inch left hand gun, 1 igniting from gases, exploded, and dropping below ignited four charges of powder in the handling room. All exploded, and only one man of the entire turret and handling crew survived. But for tho prompt and efficient wor.« of Captain William S. Cowles in flooding the handling room and the magazine with water ono of the magazines would have exploded, and the ship would probably have been destroyed with every man on board. In the turret dead and dying were piled m a heap. None escaped alive from the turret. But three men wore taken from the handling room still breathing. Tho dead were frightfully injured. Their clothes-were reduced.’to shreds and blown from their bodies, their faces were burnt, and their limbs were so mangled that the flesh hung in tatters. For a minute it seemed that the great ship and her complement of hundreds M men hung on the brink of destruction. No one can describe the awfulness of the fate that threatened them. Yet there was no panic. Once the officers realised the needs of the moment everything was in order. • Every hose available aft and amidships was led to the turret, from whicli flames spurted and tho black smoke of burning wood and cloth curled. Ths officers from the quarterdeck and the warrent officers and sailors attempted to enter the turret, but the heat was too intense until water had been playing on the fire for a few moments.
Below decks the crew who were fighting the fire stood in a heat that made their flesh smart and their garments smoke within a yard or two of hundreds of tons of powder-{Tiat might have 'exploded at any second and 1 reduced the splendid ship to atoms and obliterated everybody on board. This situation lasted for a quarter of an hour, while the flames yielded very slowly before the floods ot water poured into the handling room, and the walls of the magazine cooled slowly. I Tt is impossible to ascertain the exact cause of the disaster on board the United States battleship Missouri, as none * f those itf the after turret at the time q! vhe explosion have survived. Experts believe it was duo to the wind blowing down the muzzle of the gun through the open breech and igniting the powder as it was being hoisted,up. s Inquiries show that ns a precaution against accident big-gun practice had been suspended for three days owing to the direction of the wind. When die wind shifted practice was resumed. After the first round of rapid, firing, thinking it'safe to continue. Lieutenant Hammer left the turret to consult the gunnery expert on this matter. Only three shots of the second round of the rapid-firing had been fired when the explosion occurred.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 5293, 3 June 1904, Page 3
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525DISASTER ON A BATTLESHIP New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 5293, 3 June 1904, Page 3
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