SEVENTEEN NOW DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 727, 29 July 1929, Page 9

SEVENTEEN NOW DEAD

EXPLOSION ON BRITISH CRUISER MEN BURIED ON GREEK SOIL (Australian and X.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Reed. Noon. LONDON, Sunday. Seventeen men are now dead as the result of tlie tragic explosion on H.M.S. Devonshire. A statement issued by the Admiralty says practically all the men killed or injured were from Plymouth. The accident occurred in the course of exercises near Skiathos Island, off the eastern coast of Greece. The gun was manned by marines. It exploded presumably as a result of a misfire or flareback.

The injured men were placed on board the hospital ship Maine, in the Gulf of Volo. An Athens message says the Devonshire landed the bodies of the victims of the explosion at Volo. There they were buried. The funerals were most impressive and the townspeople rendered homage. Greek and British flags were flown at half-mast. ' The battleship Queen Elizabeth, with Admiral Sir Frederick Field on board, is coming to Greece, presumably for an inquiry to be held. A British Official Wireless message says an official list shows that among the Devonshire’s casualties were one officer and seven other ranks of the Royal Marines, who were killed or died of wounds, and 13 marines and naval ratings were injured. The officer killed is Captain John Bath. The Devonshire has steamed for Malta, where an official inquiry will be opened today. The Devonshire is on© of the most up-to-date cruisers in commission, having been launched as recently as October, 1927, and commissioned in March, 1929. Of the standard displacement of 10,000 tons, she mounts eight 8-inch guns, four 3-inch antiThis is tlie second fatal explosion on British warships within a week. On July 23, a fatality occurred on board the cruiser Vindictive after her arrival at Sheerness. Some ammunition was being unloaded when a detonator exploded. Three engineroom ratings were seriously injured, one of whom subsequently died.