EXPLOSIONS ON BATTLESHIPS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3768, 15 June 1907, Page 4

EXPLOSIONS ON BATTLESHIPS.

TSie Mikasa avid Jena. Interest Las again been aroused in the great mystery of the destruction of the Japanese battleship Mikasa, Admiral Togo’s llagship, which, it will be remembered, took lire, blew up, ami sank, in September, 1905, almost immediately after the peace with Russia. At the time the disaster was by some ascribed to discontent with the peace in the Japanese navy, though such an explanation was ridiculous to those who know the patriotism of the Japanese. But in the Kcho de Paris the Japanese Naval Attache at Paris gives what is undoubtedly the true story of the Mikasa’s temporary loss, and reveals facts which have never before been published.

He considers the disaster to the Jena exactly 1 parallel to that which sank the Mikasa. The resemblance between the two catastrophies was curiously complete. Both ships were flagships. In either case there was a series of separate explosions, the number of such in the Mikasa having been three. In either case the explosions began in the after-magazine, and were followed by a furious fire. In each case the loss of life was a little over a hundred. And, the parallel is completed by the suggestion which is made that the explosions were due to the spontaneous detonation of the ammunition.

That the Mikasa explosions were caused by the decomposition of the powder has been proved since the vessel was raised. She carried, however, a different type of powder from the French. The Mikasa’s ammunition consisted of a form of cordite for the guns and of some variant of lyddite for the shells. It was thus generally similar to that employed in the British Navy. The Jena’s ammunition for the guns was the B powder, which is a torra of nitrocellulose or gun-cotton, while her shells would contain melinite, which is much the same as lyddite.

The Japanese Attache stated that the Jena was far more severely damaged than the Mikasa. He ascribed this to the fact that she was in dry dock, whereas the Mikasa was in the open harbour.

The Attache’s statements must draw fresh attention to the risk which inevitably arises from the newer explosives. All navies, it would seem, are exposed to it, and no precautions can wholly remove the peril. It is a danger which must always be kept in view by Admiralties.