A RUSSIAN TORPEDO FACTORY BLOWN UP.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5396, 13 July 1878, Page 2 (Supplement)

A RUSSIAN TORPEDO FACTORY BLOWN UP.

Details have just arrived (says the Home News of May 23) of the destruction of the torpedo factory at Otchakoff, near Cronstadt, a week ago. The 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 ns dreadful as that which took place at Erith some years ago. The-torpedo workshops, the naval laboratory, the sheds containing stacks of torpedoes ready for use, and an immense quantity of pyroxoliue were blown np by three separate explosions, the second occurring two minutes after the first, and the third five minutes later. The shocks were felt miles away, and in Otchakoff itself a panic ensued, the inhabitants fancying that the English fleet was bombarding the 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 seme instances, the roof carried away. When the fire-engines came upon the scene the flames were rapidly approaching the magazine near the factory, in which were stored twentyone 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 the highest admiration of the heroic conduct of the soldiers, who coolly foiled away the barrels of powder and carried off oases of dynamite under their arras while the sparks were falling like fain 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 Otchakoff 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 away from land. The cause of the disaster is supposed to have been “ spontaneous combhstion.” The damage done to Government and private buildings at Otchakoff 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. ■ :