The French Disaster

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 82, 27 September 1911, Page 5

The French Disaster

BLOWING UP OP THE LIBERTE. OVER 500 PERISH. OTHER VESSELS INJURED. MEN DIE AT THEIR POSTS. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright Paris, September 26. The disaster to the Liberte occurred at Toulon, and was due to the neglect to flood the ammunition hold after the outbreak of fire, which at first was not regarded as serious. The bulk of the crew were asleep when the first explosion occurred. Wakened by the report, they went to their stations.

Little danger was at first apprehended from the fire, but then the fire gained and reached the fore ammunition hold, and an explosion followed. A hundred men on deck jumped overboard; the rest of the crew were awakened and rushed on deck. They were about to jump overboard, but were ordered to their stations.

Four explosions followed the first in quick succession; the vessel forward was wrapped in a sheet of flame, which was rising to a considerable height. With the fifth explosion the vessel sank like a stone.

Men were hurled i»to the air, and were dead when thev reached the water.

When the smoke cleared, part of the hull was seen still above water, surrounded by a tangled mass of spars and wreckage. Many of those injured were clinging to the wreckage. Assistance from other warships was promptly sent.

The Commander, M. Jaures, brother of the Socialist leader, was absent on furlough, and Captain Joubert was in command when the disaster occurred.

Smoke from the burning battleship enveloped the roadstead. Three hundred and fifty men are missing from the Liberte, and a hundred, including men from other ships and rescuers, were also lost.

A large hole was made in the battleship Republique by flying debris, and she also lost fifty men. The Democratic and Vcrite were also badly damaged, losing twenty killed and fifty injured. The Republique was hurriedly docked.

GRAPHIC DETAILS. A SQUADRON IN THE HARBOR. PILLARS OF FIRE. KEEL TWISTED LIKE A PIECE OF RAO. MOST OF THE CREW CARRIED DOWN Received 28, 11 p.m. Paris, September 20. The second squadron, consisting of the Patrie, Libert* 1 , Democratic, Justice, Verite and Republique, were anchored at Toulon since the manoeuvres, in order to give the crews engaged in the manoeuvres leave.

The Liberte's full complement was 30 officer* and 7On men. but 140 were on leave. waiting on the jetty to return aboard. They witnessed the catastrophe. The Liberte signalled that a fire had broken out forward. Efforts were made to extinguish it. but proved unavailing.

At 5.30 o'clock there were five muffled explosions, followed at short intervals by three others, each louder than before. Other warships despatched boats to assist. Meanwhile scores jumped into the sea. Many of these, hearing the bugles sound ''To quarters," returned.

Just before 0 o'clock smoke rose, and a. pillar of fire burst forth mast high.

There was a terrific detonation. The ship blew up, the bows rising out of the water, and the kwl being seen to twist like a piece of rag.

The vessel sank amidst the waves she had .thrown up all round, carrying down the bulk of the. crew with her. The mast was lorn out and hurled into ■the air, and planted upright in the water.

"A SHAPELESS. HALF-SUNKEN MASS." HEROIC MEN RETURN TO THE RESCUE. OTHER VESSELS JUDLY HIT. Received 2(i. 11.3") p.m. Paris. September 2fi. The. Liberie is a shapeless, half-sunken mass, lying in forty feet of water. Only the upper works and the aft bridge are visible. A number of boat crews, before the smoke cleared, boarded the glowing wreck to search for comrades. Several were rescued from under masses of twisted ironwork. An oflicer was hauled from under an awning with a honthook. lie had, however, succumbed. Many of the survivors were dazed.

Narratives are disjointed. A witness ashore states that lie saw bodies momentarily quivering high in the air, and then drop into the sea.

Houses were rocked and windows smashed throughout the town. The explosion sent fragments of armour plate, shells and gun mountings flying about, dealing death and destruction on all sides.

Many boats were swamped or drawn under by the suction, and the occupants drowned.

The Republique's aft turret was hit, and several plates ripped. She had a heavy list to starboard.

One of the Liberte's armor plates alighted on the Republique's port quarter, crushing the cabin of an officer, who luckily was on leave at the time. PREVIOUS DISASTERS. IIOW THE JENA WAS LOST. The Frewli Navy has long been notorious for its disasters. The most serious of these during the la-st' few years was the explosion on the Jena at Toulon

in 1007. In many quarters the extraordinary frequency of these serious accidents has been attributed to the admission of undesirable elements into the service. The evil of admitting convicts into the navy as seamen, etc., and the undermining of discipline by political influence, have .been frequently the subject of controversey in the French press. The explosion which destroyed the 12000-ton battleship Jena; occurred in dry dock at i oulon, at oufl o'clock on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 12. There were two heavy explosions, which shook Teulon to its foundations and wrecked the principal buildings at the arsenal and dockyard. A rain of steel fragments from bursting 12in melinite shells fell ovei the dockyard and town,. Killing a number of persons. To add to the horror of the catastrophe there were successive smaller explosions on the Jena, due to the destruction of the after magazine, and it was feared at one time that the battleship Sullren, lying in an adjoining dock, would be destroyed likewise. There, were 2500 shells on !>oard the Jena, which did not explode owing to the flooding of the dock.

The second explosion was the more violent. First-class Midshipman Taivert said: ''The men had resumed work in the storeroom only about ten minutes when they heard a loud explosion. Most of them thought at first that the accident was of a simple nature, that the Jena had slipped from her stanchions and had struck against the. stonework of the dock, but the men wlro were on the bridge and in the batteries perceived a great volume of smoke rising from the interior of the vessel, and, raising the cry of 'Sauve qui pent!' they fled. A moment later a second explosion occurred, far more terrible than the firat, and great tongues of flame shot out. Immediately afterwards shrieks and cries of distress were heard from every part ol the vessel, and on all sides men threw themselves overboard in order to escape a terrible death on the vessel, many of these sustaining terrible injuries by falling on their heads at the iwttom of the dock. The shocks of the explosion wereso violent that many of the men were dasihed against the sides of the vessel and literally crushed to death." (Scenes of an appalling description occurred. Two of the ship's 12in guns were dismounted, and smashing with tremendous force against the sides of the ship, cruslied in their pass-age a number of the crew into instant death. Many others were burned to death, while a number were asphyxiated. Among the victims was a. baby, who was killed at a distance of a mile by a piece of a shell. Arms, legs and heads were carried a distance of over a hundred yards, and these gruesome remains were picked up by horrified men looking for friends or relatives.

Captain Adigard, who commanded the Jena, were burnt to death. He had just finished: lunch, and was in his cabin. The explosion jammed the door of the cabin so that it could not be opened. Captain Adigartt tried vainly to escape, but he could not be rescued in time. Several gallant seamen who were trying to force an entrance into the cabin at the moment of the second explosion were blown to fragments. Afterwards the captain'.-; charred body was found just inside the door. Commandant Verifier, chief of stafl' of the Second Division of the Mediterranean Squadron, was also killed, ibut Rear-Admiral Manceron, whose flagship the Jena was, escaped with severe bums. He was at lunch in his cabin when the first explosion came. The vessels lay in dry dock, and the port authorities searched frantically, but vainly, for the keys in order to flood the dock. Finally the. battleship La Patrie which was lying just outside the dock, wns ordered to open the sluices by liom-Iwrd-ment. She fired two shots. The first went to its appointed goal, but the second went right over the arsenal wall and out across a road within six feot of a sentry at the gate, and nearly killed a number of people. ICight volunteers were then asked for to open the .sluices. Lieutenant Rous.se and seven men were selected, and the officer himself wa.s the first to reach the gate, but was killed by a bursting shell. Nothing daunted, his companions continued their work amid a hail of projectiles, and luckily they all escaped with slight injuries.