COMPLETE DETAILS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16243, 28 November 1914, Page 8

COMPLETE DETAILS.

A BLUEJACKET'S MARVELLOUS ESCAPE. OPINIONS OF EXPERTS. LONDON, November 27. (Received Nov. 28, at 1.20 a.m.) A number of men were drilling on deck at the moment of the disaster. A sailor on a vessel near by states that two heavy reports were followed by a flash of fire. The whole ship seemed to heave and then to drop into frag° ments. Another eye-witness affirms that there were two explosions—one fore and the other aft. He believes they were simultaneous explosions. The concussion shook the Southend pier, and was felt by hundreds of civilians and Germans interned in ships in the Southend roads. At first it was thought by people ashore that it was a Zeppelin raid; then there was a suspicion that an aeroplane had bombed the gasworks, until it was found that the aeroplane was a British one. Three minutes after the explosion only a whirling sea of white foam, specked with caps, wreckage, and kit>bags, marked the spot where the Bulwark had been. Fourteen of the crew are in hospital at Gillingham, suffering from concussion of the brain and fractured limbs, and fonr are in a critical condition. No officers were saved. Very few were actually aboard. There were few other craft moving in the Medway at the time. One boat was protected from the direct effects of the concussion by the river bank headland, yet she was flung out of the water, and when righted picked up a bluejacket. The latter stated that he was sitting on a grating when the explosion threw him high into the air. He turned somersault after somersault, and fell into the river. He was little hurt, and was able to swim until he was nicked up. He suggested that the Sheerness disaster was due to the fall of a 12in lyddite shell in the Bulwark's magazine. Admiral Beresford, who once com. manded the Bulwark, states that the magazines were in a very safe position, and were protected by every modern device to keep the ammunition at the right temperature. Even a shell might be dropped in the shellroom without exploding the magazine. Sir Hiram Maxim said that faulty manufacture of guncotton was impossible under modern conditions of manufacture. There might have been some accidental fulminating powder present which set the cordite off. Hundreds of the crew were Portsmouth men, and there was a pathetic scene in the barracks with griefstricken women. IN THE EVENT OF INVASION. WAR OFFICE ARRANGEMENTS. LONDON, November 27. (Received Nov. 28, at 0.25 a.m.) Lord Haldane, in the House of Lords, «aid that the War Office was organising the defences of the country, and had arranged to assume the direction of the civilian population in the event of invasion. A corps of irregulars would be supplied with badges and commanded by military officers in order to conform with The Hague Convention. TANNERIES AFFECTKD. LONDON, November 27. (Received Nov. 28, at 0.25 a.m.) The tanneries are in a serious position owing to the difficulty of obtaining tanning extracts from Italy and France. The Financial News suggests that South Africa, and Australia should fill the gap. It is hoped that British tanners will regularly use wattle bark. The bulk of their orders has hitherto gone to Germanj.