A Seaman's Narrative of the Thunderer Disaster.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 666, 2 April 1879, Page 2

A Seaman's Narrative of the Thunderer Disaster.

A London paper publishes, a private letter written by one who was on board the Thunderer at the time of the recent terrible explosion, giving an account of the disaster. He says : — "They had fired all three guns by electricity, for the first round as a broadside, and we were expecting the next when we heard a strong report, although not much louder, if any, than a broadside makes, but the sound was altogether different, and we knew directly something was wrong. All of our party were knocked down by the shock ; in fact I do not think there could have been six men in S the ship who kept their feet ; the smoke and tire came down the ladder almost enough to choke us. Now just fancy our position : a narrow passage-way, about two feet wide in each side— all the amidships portion is occupied by the engine at work, steaming eight knots or thereabouts ; the torpedo party had got a Whitehead torpedo about half-way up, our only aocess to the upper deck, and the water-tight doors all shut, — with smoke, flame, and the stench of powder enveloping the torpedo, driving you from the hatchway and knocking you silly with the shock. For three or four minutes there we were like rats in a trap — could hear the poor fellows groaning and not able to help them ; for, remember, no one could tell at first what -was the matter, and if her bottom had been damaged, the whole of the party in that compartment must die for the safety of the rest. Well, they opened one door, and I was sent to sound all the walls and find if she made any water at all. To do this I had to go along the fiats : and to see the poor fellows I met as soon as the dooro were opened was heart-rending — the poor felloWs blackened and disfigured till unrecognisable, and still struggling and Baying, 'Look out for poor Ss-and-so ; he is worse than me !' One of my messmates passed me, leading another man with all his hair burnt off his head by the fire. * I'm all right, Jack,' he said, ' and lam glad you are.' He now sits opposite me, with both hands skinned and bound up with cotton wool and oil, his head all bandaged up, and his sight bo weak he cannot bear the light of a purser's dip. Tuis is called a slight case, not in the list of injured, you will see. To hear one poor fellow saying, 'My poor dear mother !' another,

' What will my wife do now I' would have made anyone's blood run cold. But still, stern duty stares you in the face. ' Stop for nothing till you report the ship's wells !' were my orders, and ' Stop for nothings was what I -had to obey, If I could any way jump over or get through it. At last, much to my relief, I got the last well, and found her making water nowhere. Then I went on deck, and for the first time found what was the cause of this was. At independent firing the left gun in the fore turret missed fire, and by some i means the gun— a 38-ton one — burst into fragments, killing the whole of the men in the turret with the exception of two, who are both given up by the doctors. - Well, we had to go to work coffin-making, and at 10---o'clock, when the captain walked round at the head of those who wished to take a last look at their messmates before we screwed them down, the tears ran down his cheeks, and those of many others who a few hours before were joking, skylarking, or working comfortably together with what in every, case .but two looked like charred masses mixed with cotton wool. Such a sight I nev«r wish— or, rather, I trust I may never see a*ain. We sent eight or nine of the worst cases to the flagship in cots, and we have one poor fellow oh board who is just lingering out his last few hours. He belongs to the next mess to me, to give you a specimen of how it comes home— there are three messes ; take about fifteen feet of the lower deck, Nos. 1, 3, 5. In No. 1, one dying ; i in No. 3, two hurt ; No. 5, one gone to flagship, thigh fractured, one in his hammock over my head, and two killed ; the brother of one, sittting next to me, writing to his wife about his things. To-day (January 3) we buried them. The procession was a follows :— Band ; a firing party of about 100 marines ; then 10 field-pieces, each with a coffin with a Union Jack ; our captain as chief mourner, followed by every man that could be spared from the ship, and a funeral party from others in the fleet, in all, I should say, about 1000 men. The admiral himself followed. The service was read all through by the graves in torrents of rain, and in the presence of a/number of the inhabitants, and a ' Turkish guard of honor.' The damage done is very serious, and you would never believe 851b of powder could do the work — pieces of the gun, weighing hundred weights, blown in the air in all directions."