LOSS OF THE BULWARK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 188, 18 January 1915, Page 8

LOSS OF THE BULWARK.

'A NASTY BLOW. Till': TKAGEDY OF HM.fi. BULWARK. London, November 27. The blowing up of 11.M.5. Bulwark oil' Sliccrni'ss yesterday morning was a mtv nasty blow indeed, for which we enii Unci but very chilly comfort in the assurance, hastily passed around, that this swift and terrible disaster was not due to the machinations of the enemy. Acceptance of these assurances does not sweeten the bitter pill, for if the .Bulwark came to her tragic end because of something wrong in the contents of her magazine, we are left to reflect that her supplies of shells and explosives in all probability came from the same source as those which are in the magaKines of all His Majesty's ships in commission at tlie present time. And when we remember the sequence of tragedies which overtook the French navy sonic years ago through, "inherent vice"' in certain ammunition in use on board her men-o'-war, the Bulwark catastrophe becomes a matter for something more than ephemeral, if poignant, regrets at the loss of a lt"),000-ton battleship, and practically its entire human complement.

The question as to whether the Bulwark was destroyed from within or without has not, however, been definitely settled, and cannot be until an exhaustive examination has been made of the shattered remains of the warship by experts. Happily it will be possible to carry out an examination, for what is left of her lies in comparatively shallow waters, which offer no obstacles to diving operations.

Mr. Churchill has stated that the loss j of the Bulwark docs not materially all'cct our naval supremacy, and in this connection we may find some comfort in the knowledge that in battleships of the pre-Dreadnought type we still have 39 as against Germany's 20. But her loss has added something over 700 to the already formidable total of our naval casualties —formidable, that is, m comparison with the actual results achieved in actual naval warfare. The Bulwark represented an original outlay of a million pounds, and probably not far short of another half a million has been expended on her since she first took the water in 1899, She was at least a very useful item in our pre-Dreadnought section, and there is nothing to be gained by alleging to the contrary.. Her loss, together with between 700 and 800 highly-trained officers and men, means a sensible diminution in our naval strength. The alternative is detonation. Cordite cannot be exploded merely by ignition, which simply means setting alight to it. Gun-cotton, which is used for mines and with which are filled the warheads of torpedoes, falls into another category. Authorities differ as to whether or not gun-cotton can be exploded by ignition. Some of the highest authorities on matters connected with torpedo warfare maintain that guucotton.can be exploded by ignition; or. to be more precise, tliat the distinction between ignition and detonation is so fine that it is practicpilly negligible. But in any case both ignition and detonation require an active agent. The detonation of cordite requires an active i agent. An accidental fire might be the agent, for, although cordite will burn if ignited, the ignition of even a small quantity might so raise the temperature that explosion would result. It is possible, therefore, that the explosion on board the Bulwark r.light have be u caused by an accidental fire. The suggestion that the Bulwark catastrophe arose from other than internal causes is at present ''pooh-poohed" in official quarters. Apparently all our warships when lying off Sheerness rely chiefly for protection against-submarine attack upon an elaborate system of booms, but it is on record that immediately following the explosion yesterday morning all the warships in the vicinity immediately put out their torpedo nets. This action would seem to suggest that the commanders of these craft at any rate acknowledged at least the possibility of a hostile submarine being able to penetrate the boom-protected area. According to official statements, and the accounts of eye-witnesses of the catastrophe, the Bulwark was lying off Sheerness taking in ammunition from two or three barges. About ten minutes to eight in the morning Sheerness was shaken to its foundation by aterriffic explosion, a great volume of flame and smoke shot up into the air from the decks of the battleship, and a few seconds later there was a rain of debris —both of iron, coal and wood, and some fragments of humanity. When the smoke pall cleared all that could bo seen of Ii.M.K. Bulwark was her rent and riveji top-hamper. Of her crew numbering between seven and eight hundred, only twelve or fourteen were picked up by the boats, which were rushed to the scene of the disaster from other warships and vessels in the vicinity. The rest—save those ashore on leave—had been ! vvried into eternity without a second's warning.

According to current notions, the oatstropho was ihie to an internal explosion and not to a mine or ;« torpedo. An iiiti-nial explosion must mean the explo!.:on of the chip's magazine-thai is. of (he supply of cordite and other explosives which is kept in the place below the waterline designed for the purpose. A magazine may explode from two e:'ii>os by spontaneous combustion due to the heating of the cordite iin d by artilicial detonation. Tt is some time since a case of spontaneous eomlmstioii ceiirred. A few years ago disasters from this cause happened in both the British and the French navies; and in the British navy a quantity of doubtful cori,i!e v,a- destroyed and measures wore til i'n to keep the ships' magazines at a .-■life temperature. It is therefore unlikely, although it is possible, that the reignzino of the Bulwark exploded fpontaneously.