THE JAPANESE NAVAL DISASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 141, 5 June 1908, Page 2

THE JAPANESE NAVAL DISASTER.

CADETS' WONDEUFCL STOICISM. Sydney, June 4. The .Morning Herald's Hong Kong correspondent supplies particulars of the. explosion in the after magazine of the Japanese training snip Mat&ushiina. Three cruisers were oil Peseatores Islands. At four in Hie morning, when nearly all were asleep on board the Matsusiiima, her alter magazine exploded, and within live minutes her how rose and she went under wuter in a smother of foam. , Of 4(11 ollieers and men only 30 dm- , cera and 230 inen escaped. The bluejacket whose duty it waa to strike the hours on the ship'a bell uotieTud a thin wreath of smoke coining from the deck over (lie magazine and at the same instant smelt ft, peculiar odor. He ran to the officers on duty, who hurried down to Hie magazine asking for a light. Thoroughly alarmed, the sailor ran for n lantern vailing out, "Fire! Fire!" ,

As lie reached tli« fifth gun there was a deafening explosion and a choking rusli of smoking funics. He crept on with difficulty to the upper deck Over which water' was already coming. The rooms occupied by the midshipmen wore blazing furiously, and the after part of the cruiser was enveloped in smoke and flame. Explosions followed one another in rapid succession. Amid the volumes of flame and smoke aft, the bodies of officers and men were «sen to be blown up into the air—some to a height of a hundred feet. The magazine was situated just below the rooms of the junior officers, which were surrounded by the senior officers' quarters. The cadets were on the second deck and the bluejackets imidships. So terrible was the explosion that the-stem was smashed and ivery officer in the stern was killed. Only a surgeon-lieutenant who was in i lavatory and two officers who were on jhore remain as the representatives of ilie Mntsnshima's officers. The cadet behaved with - coolnessj unounting almost to recklessness. Most"" if them scorned to fight with their friends to escape on to the deck and rnietly awaited results. If the cadets lispla'yed stoicism, the bluejackets diowe'd a grim exultation, which was irobably peculiarly Japanese. The explosion threw the sailors in ;he middle of the ship Out of their tammocks. As they scrambled on to heir feet, mingled fumes and water •ushed in. The stench of gunpowder vas suffocating. Some of the Japanese ilaccd handkerchief'? over their months ind waded to the portholes. These portides enabled a few to escape, but the vater rose.so rapidly that the majoriy vere drowned or suffocated. * In the last moments the sailors houted the Japanese war song, and he survivors heard two 4oud "Banais," then a third faint and hardly pereptible cheer. After that the cruiser sank. The errible swiftness of the disaster preented any effective help being rendred.