HUGE EXPLOSION

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 139, 10 December 1930, Page 11

HUGE EXPLOSION

ARTIGLIO DISASTER

SALVAGING- A WRECK

WAR MUNITIONS BLOW UP

Tinittd I'ress Association—By Electric I»l#fiaph—Copyright. LONDON, Stli December. Sixteen, men were killed and soven who were picked up by another salvage vessel arc in. hospital as tho result of the explosion which blew tho Italian salvage ship Artiglio to pieces off Qui- ] • feeron Bay. Four of the survivors are j seriously injured. The disaster was caused by the ignition of several hundreds of tons of war munitions on the steamer Florence, which was sunk in 1918. The Artiglio was some distance from the sunken Florence, but the explosion was so violent that she was shattered in an instant. The correspondent of "The Times" at Lorient. describing the explosion on the wrecked Florence gives an eyewitness's terse account. "An enormous column of smoke and water rose up 900 ft. When it cleared away the Artiglio was gone." The sixteen who perished with her included the world's best-known divers. The Artiglio, after suspending work oa the Egypt in the autumn, remained in French waters in readiness for the resumption of the task of dynamiting a way to the Egypt's strongroom, which is filled with £1,000,000 worth of gold, at the earliest possible date in 1931. MISCELLANEOUS JOBS. Meanwhile, with her consort, the Eosiro, she undertook miscellaneous salvaging in sheltered waters. One job was to clear the wreck of the Florence, gunk in 1918 with a cargo of munitions front America. The ship was lying in 50ft of water with her masts protruding, and divers decided to demolish 'her as safely as possible with explosives. They completed all preparations yesterday. When they placed the charges about the wreck, the Artiglio retired 100 yards, which was as £ar as the electric wires connected with the charges would permit. The shots were fired, but their effects had been miscalculated, and the whole of the Florence's munitions blew Tip. What followed cannot bo known with certainty. The detonation was so violent that it either camsed the ignition of the explosives on board the Artiglio, or the colossal upheaval of water instantly engulfed her. The Eostro, which was anchored in the vicinity, rushed up and rescued seven survivors, four of whom were seriously injured. Captain Bertholotto and three divers <—Gianni, Franceschi, and Bargellini >—were among those an deck, and they •were probably killed by the explosion. The engine-room staff and others below had no chance to escape. Gianni and Franceschi had each 20 gears' experience in rubber-suit diving before using special deep-sea apparatus. Bargellini had 24 years' ejtperience. All three were 15st men with enormous muscular development. OTiey spent the greater part of the last two years roaming the sea-bed, locating the Egypt. All leave widows and children. The Artiglio was insured for £35,000. She was fitted with valuable plant. WIRELESS MAITS STORY. Giuseppi Gagli, the wireless operator on board the Artiiglio, interviewed in hospital, said the ship seemed suddenly to leap into iSxe air. He was tossed over several times while in the air and could see the ship's fragments falling into a boiling cauldron. Gagli explained that .dynamite bombs were placed in the after-hold of the Florence in the expectation that they would merely blow the hull of the wreck asunder. Instead, apparently the whole cargo of several ihundred tons of munitions blew up.