A RUSSIAN TORPEDO FACTORY BLOWN UP.

Kumara Times, Issue 567, 22 July 1878, Page 2

A RUSSIAN TORPEDO FACTORY BLOWN UP.

Details have just arrived of the destruction of the torpedo factory at OtchakoS, near Cronstadt. latlev

Tlie establishment was a large one,' and employed several hundred hands. The explosion took place at three o'clock in the morning, and seems to have been almost as dreadful as that which took place at Frith some years ago. The torpedo workshops, the naval laboratory, the sheds containing stacks of torpedoes ready for use, and an immense quantity of pyroxoline were blown up by three separate explosions, the second occurring two minutes after the first, and the third five minutes later. The shocks were felt miles away,- arid in Otcbakoff itself a panic ensued, the faricying that the, English fleet was 1 bombarding thfd town. The factory, laboratory and most of the torpedo stores Were found to have entirely disappeared, while the flames from the garrison stables lighted up with vivid effect five rows’ of barracks, the windows of which had been shattered, and, in some instances, the roof carried away. When the fire-' engines came upon the scene the flames were rapidly approaching a magazine near the factory, in which were stor*ed twenty-one barrels of gunpowder and five tons of pyroxoline. By the courageous exertions of the garrison these dangerous stores were removed before the fire reached the building* Letters from the spectators speak in terms of highest admiration of the heroic conduct of the soldiery, who coolly rolled away the barrels of powder" and carried oft’ cases of dynamite under their arms while the sparks were falling like rain among them. All the buildings within two miles of the seat of the explosion suffered damage of a more or less serious character. During the day peasants came into Otcbakoff with bags and torpedo cases which had fallen at a distance of five miles from the town, and ships at sea picked up wreckage of the factory ten miles 1 away from land. The cause of the disaster is supposed to have been “ spontaneous combustion.” The damage done to Government and private buildings at Otcbakoff is described in "the official report as immense. Fortunately the loss of life was not so great as it might have been* only twelve persons being supposed to have perished.