GAMBLING WITH LIVES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 107, 13 January 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

GAMBLING WITH LIVES.

MYSTERY OF NAVAL DISASTERS. There is something sinister and uncanny in the fate which threatens the Frency navy. The tale of disaster and mishap during the last couple of months, followed by charges and countercharges concerning the manufacture of the powder which is used, makes ugly reading. The truth is that Ministers are nonplussed by the threatened destruction of further French Dreadnoughts. On March 12, 1907, the Jena blew up, with appalling loss of life, and as a result of the enquiry the powder was blamed for the catastrophe. Public opinion regarded the official explanations as unsatisfactory. On September 25 last came news of the loss of the Liberte and over 200 men in almost identical circumstances. Here, again, the powder was held responsible, and the official report resulted once more in a promise of expert consideration of possible preventive measures. Then came the denunciation of M. Maissin, director of the powder factory of Pont-de-Buis. In' 1906, when M. Maissin was director of the Moulin Blanc factory, he was sent tp Pont-de-Buie,' and the management of the Moulin Blanc was given to M. Louppe. This engendered bad feeling between the two men, which was strengthened shortly after-, wards by M. Maissin being supplanted by M. Louppe as president of the Council General de Finistere. The gist of M. Maissin's accusation is that when it became known that the powder which caused the Jena explosion came from the factory of which he had just assumed contaol he examined the sys\ m of manufacture which had prevailed'' under his predecessor, and as a result wrote to the Minister for War imputing culpability for the disaster to. M. Louppe for having permitted serious irregularities in the manufacture of the powder. Tllere seems little doubt that the untimely end of the Jena and the Liberte was in both cases directly due to the faulty fabrication of the powder; tout there have been other happenings on board ship recently which still demand explanation. Within one week in October no fewer than five mishaps, some fraught with the greatest danger, occurred on five different French battleships. On October 21, on board the Dreadnought Mirabeau, one of the sluices which serve to flood the powder magai zines, was found to have been ; wilfully tampered with in such a way as to Tender it ineffective, and, in addition to this a mixture of powdered emery glass and ironfilings was found in an electric converter.

The following day on board the Patrie an accident happened during gun practice. Shells were being raised to charge a gun, when, for some unaccountable reason, a part of the elevating mechanism broke, and the shells were precipitated into the munitions storeroom below*, but happily none of tiie shells exploded. On October 2a it was the battleship Suffren. Here one of the crew, whether wilfully or by ihadventure, left open a steam cock which serves as a fire extinguisher in the case of an outbreak in the coal bunkers. As a result the bulkheads between the bunkers became so hot that it was found advisable to flood two of the magazines to avert disaster. Three days afterwards both the Diderot and the Justice suffered on the same day. In the former, fire broke out in the dynamo compartment adjacent to the central powder magazines, and only prompt action saved the ship. In the case of the Justice, the circumstances are peculiarly disquietening. Gunnery practice was in progress when fire broke out in one of the fore-turrets.

The powder magazines were in .immediate danger; and when the commander was advised of the fire he at once ordered them to be flooded. The cause was at first attributed to a short circuit, but this theory was disproved on investigation. The origin of the fire is still a mystery.