BLOWN TO MATCHWOOD.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13697, 29 May 1915, Page 3

BLOWN TO MATCHWOOD.

FATE OF MINE-LAYER- PRINCESS IRENE. *s>OSS OF ABOUT 400 LIVES. ONLY ONE MAN RI.SOUED. FRAGMENTS HURLED INTO THE AIR A MILE HIGH. LONDON, May 28. Besides tho crew of 250, the minelayer Princess Irene is unofficially stated to* have had a : large party of refitters and dockers aboard. Some estimates state that, 400 lives were lost.

Two pillars of flame at intervals of a. few seconds Jose three hundred feet, and there was a deafening roar. When the .smoke cleared, only fragments of wreckage and a few corpses could be seen.

Tlie oxpiosion was felt at Maidstone, 22 miles away. An officer aboard a vessel near by says the Princess Irene was hurled into the air jv mile high m 10,000 fragments. He could distinctly make out the forms of men amidst the flying wreckage. Two little girls playing On a verandah at Po-'t Victoria- were struck by falling wreck. ._■_• _,rid killed. Places ten miles s.uti_-west of Sheerness were shaken and wirc'ows broken, while the ground .trembled "ik_ an earthquake. ' Women rushpit into .tne street with their children., fe-ii*iu_ a Zi-ppclin raid.' Several people were injured at Sitting- • ourne. ' '. A boot, ;a collar and tie,, and a, pound of butter fell m a garden at Rainham, four miles distant. The Princess Irene was largely manned at Chatham, and only left the dockyards twenty-four hours previously. She was moored at a buoy 350 yards from shore. ,

Wills was picked' up m the water, and was unable to give an account of the accident. • He was understood to say that- m the middle of the explosion he thinks he must have been blown into the. water with the part of the ship m which he was working. Three other menr belonging to the Princess Irene had jdst gone ashore, otherwise the whole crew would have, been blown to pieces. Nothing except a portion of a mast marks the nlace where the Princess Irene was berthed.

The Medwiy is spotted witli pieces of wreckage, and little bits of human bodies.

The explosion was more severe than that -in the Bulwark disaster, and * ouses i_ar.the quay seemed to rock under the shock.

.Two dockers, who were returning to the Princess Irene m a Government pinnace, state that they were obliged to ta-ko refuge m the cabin from the rain of burning debris, and when they Wei c able to emerge there was no sign of the | ye pel on.'.vhich they had oeen workman hour earlier. She was blown into I the. minutest fragments. • There was, little disturbance vi the water, which was as black as ink.

The wreckage resembled matchwood . They saw one man swimming in 'a lifebelt,' and believed him to be a survivor, but found that he belonged to another ship, and had jumped, overboard, believing his! own ship was doomed. A seaman who .was on the deck of a neighboring ship narrates that he saw a huge flame springing from the deck of the Princess Irene, followed by smbko and then a series of crackling explosions, 'followed by an explosion, after which a great volume of smoke and coal dust rose m the air, and the Princess Irene simply melted stway. The explosion seemed to stun everyone for & f ew seconds, and then, boat creNvs were ordered to pick up the suavivors. , i Two men working on neighboring barges were saved, and several others were killed, including the crew of five belonging to a harbor launch alongside the Princess Irene at the time of the disaster. * ,

(Received May 2J,10 a.m.) LONDON, May 28. The Princess; Irene was loaded, with mines; ,'''.■'