THE NAVAL DISASTER.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 217, 31 May 1915, Page 2

THE NAVAL DISASTER.

.auxiliary cruiser blown up. 77 DOCKERS PERISH. „ " A; .-jr- LONDON, May 27. .. Official: auxiliary cruiser Princess Irene was accidentally blown up in Sheerness harbour, 77 dockers perishing. 400 LIVES LOST. A HORRIBLE LONDON, May 28. • a crew of 250 on the Princess Irene, it is unofficially stated that a large party of refitters and dockers were on board. Some estimate that four hundred were lost. Two pillars Of fiamV at intervals of a few seconds rose three hundred feet with a deafening roar.. When the smoke cleared, there were only fragments of wreckage and the crew were ’ Corpses. The explosion was felt at Maidstone, :22 ffiilps away. STORY OF AN EYE-WITNESS. An officer who was on board a vessel near by says the Princess Irene was hurled into the air a mile high, in ten thousand fragments. He could distinctly make out the forms of men amidst the vflying wreckage. 24 HOURS OUT OP DOCK. ONLY PORTION OF THE MAST REMAINS. LONDON, May 28.

The Princess Irene was largely manned at Chatham. She only left the dockyards 24 hours previously, and was moored at a buoy 350 yards i.rom the;shpre. ‘ Wills, who was picked up in the water, was unable to give an account of th e accident. He was understood to say that the explosion took place in the middle. He thinks he must have been blown into the water with part of the ship in which he was working with- v three other men belonging to the Princess They had just gpne ashore, otherwise the whole of the crew wer e blown to pieces. Nothing except portion of a mast marks the place where the Princess Is'-erie was berthed. The Medway is spotted with pieces of wreckage and little' bits of human bodies, ■'The explosion was more; severe than that on the Bulwark. Houses near the .(pay.-, seemed to rock under the shock.

FURTHER DETAILS

LONDON, May 28

; ,Tw little girls were playing on a verasUah at Port Victoria when they were, struck by falling wreckage, and killed.

Placet? .ten miles south-west of Sheerness vrkre covered by falling fragments

Houses at Sittingbourn 9 .were sba/ken:,and windows broken. The ground ‘■vembled like an earthquake. -Women rushed into the streets fearing a Zeppelin raid.-Seyeral were at Sittingbourne.

A boot, a. collar,,a tie, and abound of butter fell In a garden at Rainham, ifour miles distant. Two dockers returning from the Princess Irene in the Government -pinnace state that they wer e obliged -io take refuge in the, .cabin from the rain of burning deris. .When able to emerge there was no sign of the ship on which they had been working an hour earlier. She ;had been blown into the small-est-fragments. There was little disturbance -in the water, which, however, was black as ink

WRECKAGE LIKE MATCHWOOD. LONDON, May 28.

The wreckage resembles matchwood. One man .was seen swimming with a lifebelt. It was believed that he was a rSurvivor, but fit was found that he belonged to another ship and Jumped overboard, believing tjhat his.own ship •was doomed. A SEAMAN’S STORY. A seaman on the deck of a neighbouring ship narrates that he saw a huge flame springing from the deck of the,Princess Irene, followed by smoke, then a series of cracking explosions, followed by an explosion, and a great volume of smoke and coal-dust rose in the air. The Princess Irene simply melted away. The explosion seemed to stun everyone 'for a few moments. Then the boats’ crews were ordered to pick up survivors. Two men working on neighbouring barges were saved. Several others were killed, including a crew of five belonging to the harbour launch alongside the Princess Irene