EXPLOSION ON BOARD THE THUNDERER.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 702, 19 September 1876, Page 4

EXPLOSION ON BOARD THE THUNDERER.

{Times, July 15th.) A terrible accident occurred on Friday morning on board the 'J hunderer, double turret ship, at Portsmouth. Ihe ship, which is a sister ship to tne Devastation, was launched at Pembroke in March, 1872, and was subsequently brought round to Portsmouth to be completed for sea. Although more than three years have elapsed since her arrival at the southern port, her machinery had never been tried for speed or horse power on the measured mile. The breaking out of disturbances in the East had expedited her outfit, Captain J. C. Wilson had just been appointed to the (command of her, and she got under way from Spithead on Wednesday last for the official trial of her machinery for the first time previous to being commissioned. In addition to the main engines for propelling the ship, which were manufactured by Messrs Humphreys and Tennant, and are of the collective power of 800 horses, the Thunderer had on board no fever than twenty-six engines, singles and pairs, for performing various work, so that she may be practically described as an immense floating factory. She has tight boilers on board, of the common low-pressure type, which are heated by thirty-two furnaces. When a ship is making her runs on the measured mile, the engines are subjected to severer tests than are likely to be imposed again under any circumstances. With this object, the fires are managed by experienced stokers from the Steam Deserve, and the engines are, in addition to the engineers and artificers actually appointed to the ship, watched by the contractor and his men, and by engineers from the Steam Reserve and the Factory Department of the Dockyard. Every crank and reciprocation comes under the observation of some one, and every care is taken to avoid accident. The machinery of our ironclads is now, however, very complicated, and the responsibility is necessanly divided. In the Thunderer the lapse of time which has intervened between the reception of her engines from the contractors and their special trial would appear to have a deteriorating tendency. The causes of the present accident remain to be ascertained.

The trial of Wednesday having, for the reason mentioned, proved a failure at the outset, Friday was appointed for a new official trial on the measured mile in Stokes’ Bay. The ship had been anchored at Spithead all the week, and at half-past twelve, when the anchor was got up, there could not have been fewer than 500 men on board, all told. The ship was in command of Captain Waddilove, captain of the Steam Reserve at Portsmouth, and among those present superintending the machinery were Mr John Oliver, Chief Inspector of Machinery Afloat ; Mr Edward Newman, of the Steam Factory, and Mr Robert Humphreys, one of ihe contractors. Captain Wilson, the newly-ap-pointed captain, and Mr Bakewell, of the Admiralty, were also present. There were about 130 stokers on board, of whom thirty were actually in the stokehole at work at the furnaces, and a large number of dockyard joiners and other artificers engaged in all parts of the ship in completing its outfit and cabin arrangements. The ship got under way a little before one, and although she was only going “ slow,” the “ pandemonium ” in the stokehole was all aglow and crowded with hal naked forms actively engaged at the furnaces in working up the steam to the required pressure, before making the first run, the safety valves of the boilers being loaded to 301 b. At a quarter to one, a loud, sharp explosion was heard below, exactly resembling the report of one of the 38-ton guns. Immense volumes of steam forced their way up the uptakes and the gratings &f the coal bunkers, more or less scalding everyone in the immediate vicinity, both on tr.e superstructure and the hurricane deck. It was evident to all that some terrible accident had occurred, though no one knew its real character, and the bellowing of the steam through the waste and escape pipes caused almost a panic among the landsmen on board, who were not satisfied that the worst had happened. Even among the engineers the most contradictory guesses were hazarded —it was a boiler that had burst; it was the main steam pipe that had been carried away; it was the superheater that had exploded. In fact, the steam below and in the engine and stoke-holes was so intense that it was impossible to venture near the seat of the explosion. Mr Weeks, one of the engineers belonging to the ship, who exhibited wonderful nerve and presence of mind throughout the whole trying circumstances, believing that one of the cyb'n ders had burst, stopped both engines, groped his way to the stop valves, which he closed and then rushed upon deck and called upo. upon the Dockyard hands, in the name o' God, to volunteer to go below for the par pose of bringing out the dead and dyir.p from the stokeholes. But the bravest he o hack from rushing through the scalding steam to the dark and tortuous regions below. Perhaps it was better that they dro not make the attempt, for, being Strang r* to the ship, they would in all probability have lost themselves in the steam or hav ■ fallen headlong through some open hatchway or aperture. Mr John Oliver, howgygr, followed by Mr Bencke and Mr Ste-

| phens, members of his staff, and a number j of gallant engine-room artificers and blue- | jackets promptly responded to the appeal. ! They fought their way into the engine-room, H whither the devoted stokers had crawled in <: their agony, Portsmouth, Sunday Night.

The total number of deaths up to the present time resulting from the terrible boiler explosion on board her Majesty’s ship Thunderer is thirty-four. Of these fifteen were killed at one stroke on board ship, and were conveyed corpses to the hospital, three died between the ship and the shore, and sixteen died after being received in the hospital. There are now forty-three remaining under treatment, thus making the total roll of the killed and seriously wounded by the explosion seventy-seven. Of course the arrival of so large and unexpected a number of patients made an exceptional demand upon the medical and other resources of the hospital. The premises, however, are large and beautifully situated, and Inspector-General Smart, 0.8., Deputy-Inspector Loney, and their staff were equal to the emergency An additional ward was opened for the reception of the least serious cases, stores were ransacked, and the ordinary nurses were supplemented by a large number of convalescent patients, who lent willing aid. The patients were divided into three classes. Some were received in such a condition of mutilation and excoriation that it was clear on their reception that no hopes of their recovery could be entertained, and they subsequently died from the shock, After all that good nursing and attendance can do the list of deaths i?, certain to be much increased, for extreme excoriation is not very susceptible to treatment, and is apt to produce delirium and collapse. The experienced staff, without relaxing in their efforts towards those entrusted to their care, can indicate pretty accurately the sufferers who must almost inevitably succumb, and it is to be feared that in a few instances those who escape will lose the use of their eyes. On Saturday the frightful outcries of intense pain which thrilled the affrighted groups at the hospital gates had died away. The worst cases had, in the natural course of things, been removed from the ward to the mortuary; in other instances the poor fellows, their distorted features and bodies swathed in lint and cotton wool, saturated with oil and lime water, with open spaces left for their mouths and eyes, had ceased to complain or moan, and were lying in a state of perfect unconsciousness, only little removed from death itself, while in the cases wlr'ch are likely to receiver the pain had yielded to the remedies applied. During the first hours it was difficult to prevent the poor fellows from tearing away their dressings in their agony and delirium, and even now the four junior officers have 1o keep strict ward, relieving each other throughout the night. But the greatest quiet prevails in the wards.