HEROISM IN DEATH TURRET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 7 September 1907, Page 4

HEROISM IN DEATH TURRET.

AWFUL SOUSES IN WARSHIP EXPLOSION. Xcw York, July Hi. i Like many similar disasters in the recent annals of the American navy, the terrible explosion on the battleship dcorgia yesterday was due lo premature ignition of the powder charges. It is thought lhat a spark from the smoke stack descending through the upper aperture of the .turret, which was open, 'caused the explosion. Instantly the narrow enclosure was converted into an inferno. Men, frcn-

/.icd with pain, battered their lists illmost to a pulp against the walls of Hie turret, or fell to the floor writhing m agony. Many of them were burned beyond recognition, and others, when relief came, though alive, were sightless. Yet during the few seconds of their agony many acts of heroism were per- | formed. One seaman, seeing the spark, jumped with a hound to the ammunition halch, closing it in the nick of time, and saving the ship from destruction. Another shielded with his body that of Lieutenant (loodrich, who, however, maddened with pain, rushed up the hatchway screaming wildly, and with clothes and hair burning furiously sprang into the sea, whence he was rescued by a launch only to die a few hours after.

Of eighteen men and three oflieers imprisoned in the blazing turret only i'Midshipman Kimball escaped uninjured. As soon as he heard the terrible, hiss of the igniting powder he instinctively pulled his cap over his face, held his breath, and fell on his face. He says:

"The llanics seemed to hiss round me for ian age, blistering my body, but I suppose that it was only for a few seconds. I could hear the men screaming and gasping for breath "When I got up they were lying piled in heaps, many of them sightless and featureless, writhing feebly." Outside the turret the crew, until the appearance of Lieutenant Goodrich, followed by a sailor, who also jumped into the sea, had no intimation of the explosion. The sun was shining brightly, and they were waiting eagerly for the expected shot of the Bin gun. Instantly the work of rescue was begun, men descending into the raging flames at the risk of their lives and bringing up the dead and dying with all possible despatch.