FATAL GUN EXPLOSION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1950, 9 July 1891, Page 18

FATAL GUN EXPLOSION.

TWO OFFICERS AND FOUR MEN OF H.M.S. CORDELIA KILLED. (Per Press Association.) Sydney, July 6. H.M.S. Cordelia, .which has been cruising in Fijian waters with Sir J. B. Thurston, returned to port this afternoon. Captain Grenfell reports that a terrible explosion took place on board on the 27th June, when the vessel was between Fiji and Noumea. The gun practice which the vessel had been engaged in was just concluding, and as the seventh shot with a full charge was made up with a common shell about to be fired, a fearful explosion occurred and a scene of indescribable horror ensued, the bodies of a number of the crew being strewn about the deck. Captain Grenfell states that he was standing on the port side watching the men engaged at the guns when the explosion took place. The air was filled with fragments of metal, and pieces of the shattered gun went as high as the foretop-gallant-lift and royal sheet, both of which were shot away. The breech block of the gun was carried right across the deck, crashing through the fixtures in its track. A piece of iron tore through the funnel and damaged the gear, and nearly every part of the outside trunnions went overboard." The right trunnion went forward and the left aft, striking the poop and falling on the quarterdeck. The explosion burst through the upper deck, and what was known as the left bracket of the gun carriage was blown down on the main deck, severely injuring two men. The whole force seemed to have been inboard.

As soon as the wreckage was cleared away it was found that two officers and four men were killed, besides many injured. la some oases the poor follows were blown to pieces.

Those killed are :— Lieutenants Hillyaf and Gordon, Gunners Langford and Darwell, seaman Hill, and a ship boy named Brown. The wounded are : — Midshipmen Lambert, Champion, and Moore ; artillerymen : Healy, Armitage, Barber, and Coomber; seamen: Luks, Lingre, Lee, Nicker, and Guilick. The gun was examined before the vessel left Sydney and pronounced fie for service. The gun which burst was a G-io breechloading Armstrong, and from the manner in which the gun was broken into small pieces like castiron or glass it gives one the idea that it was burst by an enormous charge of some nitrous compound. One midshipman had a marvellous escape. A lad named Brown was sitting on the steps of the galley watching the proceedings when | a piece of iron killed him. ■ Lieutenant Hillyar, who was standing to I the right of the gun, was also struck by a block of iron and killed instantaneously. Lieutenant Gordon, who was nearer the gun, lived for a few minutes after the accident. July 7. The accident on the Cordelia has created a painful sensation here. The wounded men are in the hospital, and several of them, especially Kingre, are in a critical condition. The gun had only been used for 200 rounds, and it was guaranteed for 2000. The explosion cannot in any way be accounted for. A report of the accident and the remains of the gun will be sent Home, where a naval inquiry will be held. The appearance of the Cordelia's upper deck is almost such as it would be after a sharp engagement. On the port side, wherethe gun was fired, the remains, which consist of some 10 pieces of iron, lie near at hand, while the • broken- gun carriage is scattered, and all over the ship's deck are marks and dents showing the great force with which the fragments were hurled about. It is miraculous that many more were nob killed and hurt. Some of the cabin doors were smashed, and others shaken clean out of their hinges. The top-gallant bulwark was broken and battered, and everywhere great dents are to be seen. The machinery was so chocked with fragments of glass and iron that work was at a standstill for some little time after the explosion.