The Gunboat Disaster

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume V, Issue 1405, 16 August 1905, Page 3

The Gunboat Disaster

Details by the Mail Gapliic Acount of the Explosion Pr« 6« Association.—Copyriglit. Sidney, this day. The Canadian mail brings a few parlicn. lars of the explosion on boaid tho United States gunboat Bsnninglon at San DiogO' Suddenly there was a •loop-toned, rumbling intonation, like a distant explosion of dynamite, and tho vessel was seen to' rool i aud shako from stem to stern. A dense cloud of white steam shot skyward) and the entire upper deck apposed to lift and 1 then to sottlo back with a crash. The l vessel was about to sail for Panama. Tho 'steam poured out.of ihe ventilating fnnnols , through every aperturo that gave an open- , ing from the lower regions of the ship, It 1 was Borno timo before tho roscuors could venture bolow. Twice bands of brave : workers wero forced to abandon tho Bioki ening tasrf and come aboye owing to the inflow of water that filled the ongine and boiler room, The rescuers faced tho terrible speefcac'o boneath the main deck in tho forward part of the vessol, wliero the crow's quarters wero located. Here tho greatest loss o' lifo occurred. Many of tho crew wero in their quarters, smie swinging comfortably in their hammocks, The dead and injured wero taken o'it of this soction to tho numbor of almost two score When tho roll was called 136 were unaccounted for, It is beliovod that p irt of tho furnaco foil against tho boiler,' which exploded. It was forced aft, and probably other boilers exploded immediately afterwards, The steam pipes were wrecked, liberating the steam, and ov ry man ia tho engine-room at tho time must have _act his death,