THE TORPEDO EXPOSION.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2201, 16 March 1881, Page 3

THE TORPEDO EXPOSION.

The Melbourne correspondent of the “ Daily Times ” furnishes that journal with the following account e-f the torpedo explosion on the 6th instant :—With the view of exercising the crew of the ironclad Cerberus in tho duties of active warfare, it has been customary to take that veatel for a cruise down Port Phillip Bay at stated intervals, and there to put the men through a course of torpedo practice, gunnery, &o. One of these excursions has resulted in a shocking catastrophe, which has cast quite a gloom over the community. The “official” practice had been successfully completed late on last Saturday afternoon (a number of torpedoes had been exploded, and other experiments carried out without mishap, and Captain Mandeville, the commander of the Cerberus, and the second officer had left tho vessel to attend an open-air concert, to be given at Queenscliff by the Cerberus band), when someone suggested that something should be done for tho amusement of the spectators on beard and on shore. Of course, what was meant was that hitherto only small charges had been fired, and consequently the spectators had seen nothing to give them a sufficiently vivid idea of the terribly destructive powers of torpedoes. Their curiosity was destined to be satisfied in a manner that they will never forget. An old zinc powder case was nearly filled with 701 b of gunpowder, a little wet gun-cotton was added to got rid of it — the gunner remarking jocularly that “it will all go up ’’—and a small piece of dynamite. I will not here repeat in detail the circumstances leading up to the tragic event that followed, for no doubt your readers have already perused them, but it will suffice to say that a crew of six m n got into tho captain’s gig, intending to explode the torpedo at a safe distance from the ship, and thus throw np a fine volume of water for the amusement of those on shore. While the officers and crew of tho Cerberus were, in the absence of their commander, thus playing at warfare, the spectators on shore were appropriately enjoying some favorite selections from the popular musical burlesque with which all ace familiar. A loud explosion was suddenly heard, and looking seawards, we are told, “ the spectators were amazed at seeing the fragments of a boat, and what appeared to be the limbs of men thrown into tho air amid a vast upheaval of water The dreadful character of tho disaster was not at first realised, a number of people believing that a boat filled with ‘dummies’ had been blown np. Unfortunately this was a delusion. Immediately tho truth became known, the band played the ‘ Dead March,’ and returned to their ship ’ What occasioned this appalling catastrophe is by no moans clear. The torpedo was put over the boat’s side, but one of the oars fouled the wire connecting it with the ship, and it was while two of the crew were trying to free it again that the explssion took place. The body of R. S. Groves, tho gunner in charge, was hurled into the air 100 ft, and turned over three or four times before it fell. The surface of the sea seemed covered with fragments of flesh and clothing, and the water was discolored with blood. Three of the poor fellows cemprising tho crew were literally blown to atoms, and are simply entered on the ship’s rolls as ’‘missing,” while the bodies of two thers were recovered in a mangled condition. Only one of the crew—Jasper—escaped ; how, is a mystery to all. A few minutes before the accident one of the seamen jocularly remarked to him, " By Jove, Jasper, you are in the best place if there is a blow up,” and this strange prediction^proved correct. Jasper was blown into tho air, but beyond sustaining a severe shock, and bru.ees to his legs and other trivial injuries, escaped unhurt from the explosion. When he fell into the sea he quickly recovered his senses, and struck out for the ship, but would probably have been drowned had not Mr A. Houston, a SubLieutenant of the Naval Torpedo Corps, jumped overboard and swum to his assistance. It was a veritable blood bath. As ho swam, a man’s heart floated by and touched his face, and altogether tho water was in such a dreadful state that he was almost overcome. However, he bravely persevered, and succeeded in saving Jasper’s life. Who is responsible for the tragic event has not yet been solved, but one thing must be patent to all—that such terribly destructive agents as torpedoes are not the instruments with which to delight a holiday gathering. A few years ago, at a review on Flemington racecourse, a man was blown into atoms by a mine, and the spectators cheered lustily, thinking it was a dummy sent r.loft for their amusement. Spectacles of this horrible description, attributab’e perhaps to the relaxation of discipline engendering carelessness, are uncomfortably suggestive of the old displays when men were “ butcher’d to make a Roman holiday.” and cannot be too stringently discouraged. The incident recalls the warnings uttered when the Berry Ministry, from motives of economy, superseded the old Torpedo Corps, which was composed in the main of men of some scientific training, under the command of on accomplished electrician, and left the handling of the delicate but deadly weapons of modern warfare to comparatively I speaking, untrained and, scientifically speaking, I ignorant seamen. j