TOULON DISASTER

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10434, 27 September 1911, Page 5

TOULON DISASTER

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION ENORMdUS LOSS OF LIFE

(Received Last Night, 10.35 o'clock.)

PARIS, September 26. A second squadron consisting of the Patrie, Liberie, Democratic, Justice, Verite, and Republique (has been anchored at Toulon since the manoeuvres in order to give the crews manoeuvre leave. The Liberte's full complement was thirty officers and seven hundred men, but one hundred and forty were on . leave. The latter were waiting on the jetty to return aboard and witnessed the catastrophe. The Liberie signalled that fire bad broken out forward, and that efforts to extinguish it were unavailing. At 5.35 o'clock muffled explosions followed at short intervals, and then three others, each louder than before. Other warships dispatched boats to assist. Meanwhile scores jumped into the sea, but many of these, hearing the bugles sound "to quarters," returned just before six o'clock. , . The cloud of smoke and pillar of fire were mast high. There was a terrific detonation when the ship blew up. The bows rose out of the water and the keel was seen to twistlike a piece of rag. She sank amidst the waves she had thrown up all round, carrying down the bulk of the crew. A mast was torn out and hurled in the air, and planted .upright in the water. '

SHAPELESS HALF-SUNKEN MASS

RESCUING THE CREW,

DAMAGE ON ALL SIDES.' j (Received Last Night, 11.35 o'clock.) y PARIS, September 26. The Liberte is a shapeless, halfsunken mass in forty feet of water. Onily the upper works and aft bridge are visible. I A number of boat crews, before the smoke cleared, boarded the glowing wreck in search of their comrades. Several were rescued under masses of twisted ironwork. An officer was hauled from under an awning with a boathook. He had succumbed. Many of the survivors were dazed, and their narratives are disjointed." A witness ashore states that he saw bodies momentarily quivering high in the air and then drop into the sea. Houses were rooked and windows smashed throughout the town. The explosion sent fragments of armour plate, shells, and gun mountings flying in all directions, dealing death and destruction on all sides. Majiy boats were swamped or drawn down by the suction and the occupants drowned. The Republique's aft turret was hit and severail plates ripped. She has a heavy list to starboard. One of the Liberte's armour plates alighted on the Republique's port quarter, crushing the cabin of an officer who was on leave.