BRITISH NAVAL CALAMITIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 18, 4 January 1912, Page 3

BRITISH NAVAL CALAMITIES.

I STUPENDOUS TOLL OF THE SEA. The disaster which befell the French Navy in the loss of the battleship Lihorte at Toulon is one of the most deplo/able of modern times. Within recent years there have been few great naval disasters in the British service attended by such fearful loss of life, but our navy lias been by no means free from cala,maties. Even since the year 1870 more than enough lives have been sacrificed. The gun-boat Slancy was wrecked near Honk-Kong during a tyhpoon on .May 9th, 1870, and 42 lives were lost, but the greatest disaster during the same year was the loss of the Captain at sea near Capo Finisterre in the ,rly morning of September 7th. This vessel ; capsised in a heavy squall shortly after midnight and wont down in three minutes; 172 lives were lost 18 men alone being saved, and the loss of the vessel was said to bo due to instability, for she hadi very low freeboard and ' heavy / topi hamper masts and hurrican deck. . - i ir Five years later on September Ist, dd-Vkfred a'nother accident which might well have been a fearful calamity. This was the collision between the Vanguard and/ the Iron Duke, in which: the . former, vessel was sunk, fortunately, however, with no loss, of life. The collision took place during a fog off the coast of Wicklow. A year later, on July 14th. there was a serious boiler explosion in the battleship, Thunderer, due it is said to the safety valves sticking. The ship at the time was carrying out a trial trip near Portsmouth, and as a result there wore 45 men killed and about 50 injured. Three years later" on January 2nd, 1879, there was another explosion on board the same vessel. She was at target practice at the time in the Sea of Mamora, and. one of the 38-ton guns exploded, killing two officers, and eight , men and wounding ut forty othqrs, ~, One of the most deplorable accidents however, occured in. 1878, on March 24 when the training frigate Eurydice foundered in a, .squall off Dunnose, Isle of Wright. ..The lower deck gun ports, were it is; said open at the time and the vessel heeling over to the blast, the water entered and caused her to capsize. About ffiOO persons—of whom a large number were youths under training—lost their lives. The unfortunate vessel . was eventually raised and taken to Portsmouth, but was subsequently broken up . On January 31, 1880, the training ship Atlanta left Bermuda on a trial voyage, and was never heard of again. It is supposed she foundered, during a terrific gale which raged between February 12th and IGth, and 15 officers and 2G5 petty officers, seamen, marines and boys went to their doom.. Another terrible disaster involving great loss of life occured the following yeaiq when on April 26th. the gunboat DotereL was totally destroyed by an explosion due, it is said, to the formation of coal gas. The calamity took place in the Straits of Magellan and of her crew of .150 only seven wore saved. . <.< On September 22, 1884, the Wasp ran ashore at Tory Island, and 52 persons lost their lives, while on November 10th, 1890, the!‘ill-fated Serpent a torpedo cruiser, was lost near Gape Villamf;Tlife 'Vessel struck a rock during a heavy gale;-and 173 officers and men, 'perished, .three 1 seamen offing the only .survivors. Most of us probably remember the shock of horror 'that staggered, .the ihhabi'tahts of this! country whcjii(he hews’of the tex-rible disaster, rhiiclic’d Great Britain. The accident occured on June 22nd, 1893, when during steam tactics off the coast of Tripoli the Camperdown accidentally jammed Jthe. Victoria. The groat battleship soon sank-and carried with her the; Admiral, Sir George Tyron, and 337 officers and men. Tn 1901 occured - the loss of the destroyer Cobra, in the North Sea, the ship* penally , breaking in halves in top liffifYY-- sea,,nm;! • about. 63 lives being lost, ,The -following year , the sloop Condor put to sea from Esquiinqlt, ..British Columbia and was never ' heard of j again, aipr , were any traces of her discovered. i;i: ; . In 1904 the first; of the terrible submarine disasters in our navy took place when-”submarine Al was run down and sunk off the Nab Lightship with great loss of life. Two years later submarine A 8 foundered with a loss of fifteen lives. In March 1908 the destroyer Tiger was run down and cut in two during a night attack by the first-class cruiser Berwick. 'Thirty-two officers and men were drowned or killed, the remainder 1 of' ’ the men being picked up by the' Berwick and Gladiator. The next month the latter vessel herself was in collision in the Solent !\ith the American liner St. Paul. The disaster took place during a snow blizzard, and only ten miles away from the scene of the recent collision between the Hawke and the Olympic and the sharp bows of the liner penetrated the cruiser’s side as far as the centre line of the deck. On getting clear the stricken warship was headed for shallow water, gradually capsizing as she went, and eventually grounded and heeled over on her side. The total number of lives lost was 27, and of this number several were survivors of the Tiger disaster which had taken place about a fortnight or three weeks before. • lie most recent serious disaster took place in 1909, when submarine C 11 was run into and sunk by a steamer in the North Sea, eleven lives being lost. The unfortunate vessel could not lie raised, ami the funeral service was read over the spot where she had foundered. _ Tho above formidable list will show that the British Navy has contributed its fair share of lives to those lost in naval disasters in recent years. The explosion on the Lihorte, however, involving greater loss of life than in any of the cases mentioned, except the foundering of tho Captain, has aroused almost as much sympathy in tliis country as it has in France, and there is hardly a person in Great Britain who cannot feel the awful horror of tho dread calamity which lias so recently taken place.