TERRIBLE EXPLOSION ON AN ENGLISH WAR SHIP.— THREE MEN KILLED.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1053, 25 March 1882, Page 2

TERRIBLE EXPLOSION ON AN ENGLISH WAR SHIP.— THREE MEN KILLED.

A communication has been received from an officer on board H.M.S. Triumph, now the flagship of the Pacific station, stating that a serious explosion occurred on board that vessel when off Coquimbo, on the coast of Chili, on Tuesday, the 22nd November last. The writer, who has escaped uninjured, gives a brief but startling account of the catastrophe. He says:—“We have had aterrible explosion of kesotine siccutive on board her. It occurred on Tuesday last, at eight o’clock in the morning.” The letter bears the date of the 27th, so that it was written five days after the accident. “ Two men,”

the writer states, “ were killed on the spot, and a third died on the afternoon of the following Saturday, while many were terribly burnt. The material which exploded was stowed under the paint-room, directly contrary to the Admiralty instructions. It appears that a marine went there with a light, aud he was literally blown to pieces. The beds in the sick bay, outside the paint-room, were wrenched out of the deck, and men were thrown all over it. As I have said, one man was blown all to pieces, and the second, who was killed, was thirty-five yards off, his death resulting from concussion of the brain. The man who died yesterday afternoon sustained frightful injuries. His thighs and abdomen were almost blown away, and he was a terrible sight. Strange to say, the painter, who was actually inside the paintroom, was only badly burnt. There is at the time 1 am writing only one dangerous case among the injured, that of a stoker, who is suffering from severe internal injuries and concussion of the spine. At the time of the explosion I was walking up and down on deck, and the band was playing “ God save the Queen ”to the colours. It gave us all a terrible fright. The exploded material had got into the double bottom, and it was only yesterday that anyone could get near it, owing to the gas which emanated from it. The substance which has thus been the cause of this serious accident is commonly known as patent driers, which are used in ironclads to prevent corrosion between the double bottoms. The Triumph is an iron steamship, armourplated, of 6,610 tons burthen, carrying engines of 4,890 horse power, and having 14 guns. Her captain is Albert H. Markham.”