MONITOR EXPLOSION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 115, 8 February 1919, Page 3

MONITOR EXPLOSION

TORPEDOED TO SAVE DOVER-. Shortly >efore the last big advance in Belgium the Admiralty announced the loss of some fifty lives in an explosion in one of our monitors. The scene was the naval harbour of Dover, where in the evening a tremendous' explosion shook. tlie town. . In a few minutes crowds iloclteu to tho sea-front. At anchor, burning furiously, was the monito? Oilatteu, a new ship of a lwrge type. , At intervals loud explosions occurred, and tug boats and pinnaces were busy taking off injured m a n. Tie firo increased, and about seven o'clock Vioe-Admiral Keyes, who, it is said, went on board tho Glatten, realising the danger to tho crowd, called in the help of the military, who, with bayonets fixed, gradually beat the people into the back streets. ~ ' . It was feared the fire would reach tno Glatten's magazines, and if this had happened disaster would have befallen tlie town. The danger was increased by the presence of other craft with explosives on board, including deptn charges, while near by was a loaded munition ship waiting to sail ioi France. , . . Suddenly a muffled report was heard, and the Glatten was seen to be settling down, having been sunk by torpedoes. Several oflicers and men landed duiiii" the five unhurt, but a large number of "the crew were taken to hospital. About thirty died, and some of tlie crew, it is believed, went down with their ship. By a strango coincidence, at Folkestone a week later, tlie cross-Channel steamer Onwnrd, used as a transport, mysteriously c:r.!;:ht fire while moored to the quay and sank. •