TERRIBLE DISASTER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3778, 6 April 1891, Page 2

TERRIBLE DISASTER.

ANOTHER GUN COTTON ! EXPLOSION. AWFUL RESULTS. A TORPEDO DETACHMENT BLOWN TO ATOMS, Sydney, April 3. A terrible disaster occurred this evening near the Middle Heads to a detachment from the Torpedo Corps and Sappers. It appears that the detachment consisting of Lieutenants Hammond and Bedford, Corporal McKee, Bugler Bennet, and Sappers Brentnall Wailes, Adams, King, Borland, Blackman, Tulley, Bowmaker, Grant, and Bolin, proceeded in a cutter to |lay two mines, intending to fire the first before laying the second, The first mine, which contained 100 lbs of gun cotton, was successfully laid, and the boat hauled off to prepare to fire it, when by some means the free ends of the wire attached to the second mine (con sisting of 501bs of gun-cotton), which were hanging over the side of the boat, got connected with the electric machine.

The result was a terrible explosion, and a huge column of blackish water, | in which were seen fragments of the boat and of the bodies of the unfortunate men, rose-high in the air. A relief party was at once sent out, and found that four of the men had been literally blown to shreds, all that was remaining of them being small paitides of flesh. All the others were badly injured, and on being rescued were sent to Sydney Hospital. Lieutenant Hammond is manager of the Telephone Exchange, and Lieutenant Bedford manager of a branch of the Joint Stook Bank. The mines were being fired in the presence of a large number of the public, and among the horrified spectators were His Excellency the Governor, the Earl of Jersey and family, and the wife of Lieut. Ham* mond. It is believed that Mrs Hammond'? mjnd beoonje deranged owing to the accident.

£pril 4. The stern part of the torpedo cutter was completely blown away, but the survivors managed to keep afloat, with the assistance of the remaining part of the boat. Sapper Grant, one of the survivors, states that the first mine twice refused fire; whereupon a new cable was attached to it, which he thinks must have been connected with the mine on board. \ Sapper Borland deserves great credit for his action towards his c om«ide Brentnall, who was lying

senseless in tbe remaining part of the boat. Borland kept tbe boat afloat till Brentnall was rescued, remarking that if he did not die from the shock, be would not let him die by drowning. After the explosion, pieces of dead bodies were seen floating about, and tbe liver, lungs, and portions of head were discovered by the survivors while they were in the water waiting for the arrival oi the rescue boat. In one case two arms and part of a shoulder, with the head almost wrenched off, sank before it could be rescued. Colonel de Wolski, who was one of the vice-regal party present, says that so long as the men are allowed to fire those hasty charges, merely for the purposes of public demonstration, they must expect possibilities of explosion. The men should not have to run those risks merely to give ladies a pleasant afternoon.