The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-01-11 00:00:00

THE TERRIBLE ACCIDENT ON H.M.S

THUNDERER.

The Times of Saturday published the following from their
Constantinople Correspondent :

"The British Embassy has received a telegraphic
report from Admiral Hornby of a frightful accident
on board Her Majesty's ship Thunderer at Ismid,
yesterday, througn the bursting of a big gun during
gun practice, causing the death of two officers—
Lieutenants Daniel and Coker—and eight seamen,
and badly wounding 32 other men."

The following copy of a telegram addressed by Vice-
Admiral Sir G. ehipps Hornby, under date Ismid, January
2, to the Secretary of the Admiralty was also published :
"One 38 ton gun in the Thunderer burst this mo n-
ing, killing Lieutenant (Joker; Daniel, Lieutenant of
Marine Artillery . . . Isaac Grover, and • . . .
petty officers; George H. Butland, William Mon;ay,
and . • leading seamen; Henry Bezel, able
seaman; and Thomas Bolton, corporal, Marine
Artillery.
"Gun burst before trunnion, muzzle blowing over-
board. The gun had been fired with battering charge,
but when it burst was loaded only with full charge and
empty shell.
" Mr. Jackson, boatswain, and 32 men wounded, 12
very badly.
"Turret is disabled ; ship otherwise uninjured.
"I will report condition of the wounded to-morrow."

Admiral ilOrllby telegraphed a corrected list of the killed
to the Admiralty on 6aturilay. The names are the same as
those given abeve, but the Admiral adds the ratings as
follows :

Lieut. Coker, Lieut. Daniel, and Corporal Bolton,
Marine Artillery; George Ferns, coxswain of the
launch ; Isaac Grover, coxswain of cutter; John
Roche, boatswain's mate; George N. Butland,
William Munday, and William Warne, leading sea-
men ; Henry Btzzell, able seaman. The Admiral
regrets to state that another death, that of Job Hough,
a gunner's mate, occurred suddenly on Saturday morn-
ing. The other wounded are reported to be going on
favourably.

Admiral Hornby telegraphed from Ismid at half
past ten on Saturday morning that the funerals of the
officers and men kilted took place on Friday in the
Armenian burial ground at Inlaid.
An inquiry into the cause of the accident was
opened on board,the Thunderer, at Ismid, on Saturday
morning.

The following telegram was received from Vice-
Admiral Sir G. Phipps Hornby, dated sth January :
"1 have much satisfaction in stating all the wounded
are doing very well, and that the only case which now
gives cause for anxiety is William Casswell, leading
Beaman, though he has experienced a Blight improve-
ment during the last twelve hours. The larger pro-
portion of the wounded will be sufficiently well to go
to Malta Hospital in the Thunderer about the middle
of the present week."

In a leader commenting upon the lamentable accident to
the Thunderer, The Times remarks :
"It would be idle to deny that the lamentable
explosion on board her Majesty's ship Thunuerer is a
grave disaster to the British Navy. The actual loss is
serious, but the moral effect may be still more painful.
Most of our large vessels of war are now armed with
guns like that which buret on Thursday morning in
one of the Thnederer's turrets, killing ten men on the
spot and wounding between thirty and forty. It
would not be unnatural for our sailors to leap to the
'conclusion that gunnery practice in every one of
our iconclads involves the appalling risks of a
similar catastrophe. Brave as the officers and men
of the British Navy have always been, there is
something almost threatening enough to daunt even
their daring spirit in the suspicion that at any
moment a 38-ton or a 35-ton gun may be shattered
in pieces, spreading destruction all around. We
may expect with some confidence that a strict
inquiry will show that
.the explosbn at Ismid
was an exceptional case, assignable to some act of in-
dividual ne,Dgence. But, in the first instance, a
gloomy shadow is cast upon the whole system, and in
tsthaendsrh the impression must be. Sailors are
special case of the Thuuderer it is easy to under-
not now ignorant and superstitious as they once were,
but there is something painfully impressive in this
vessel's brief history, which can hardly promote cheer-
ful thoughts among her crew. It is a mere coincidence,
of course, that a 38-ton gun should have burst for the
first time on board the ship which was wrecked at
Spithead by a frightful boiler explosion two years and
a half ago, but these are the facts that hold their
ground most obstinately in the memories of seamen.
"The Thunderer was one of the unmasted turret-
ships introduced into the Royal Navy, mainly through
the exertions of Mr. Childers. In 1871 the 'Devasta-
tion type' of vessel, to which the Thunderer belongs,
was approved by a Commission as the first-class fight-
ing ship of the immediate future.' In 1872 the
Thunderer was launched, the original design, which
had been modified in the case of the Devastation under
the influence of the panic caused by the loss of the
Captain, being carried out in every respect. The
Thunderer was not, however, put into commission for
nearly five years, during three of which she lay idle in
Portsmouth Harbour. In the summer of 1876 she
was prepared for service with the Mediterranean
squadron in the Levant, and was being taken out
to sea for a trial of her engines when a boiler ex-
plosion occurred on board, killing more than forty
men, most of whom were scalded to death, and in-
flicting injuries on nearly twice as many. The in-
quiry into the disaster was prolonged for several
weeks, and the result was not generally regarded as
satisfactory. It was not until the following January
that the Thunderer was again made fit for service.
Her trial trip, however, was a complete success, and
she at once took rank as the most powerful ironclad in
the Navy. Her tonnage is 4,407 tons, and her engines
are of 6,270-horse power. Her armament, as may be
conjectured, is of corresponding weight and destructive
force. Originally each of her two turrets was fitted
with two 35-ton guns, but on the introduction of the
Armstrong hydraulic machinery two 38 ton guns were
placed in the forward turrtt. The Thunderer played
a conspicuous part in the movemebte of the fleet
under Admiral Liornky, and she formed one of :the
squadron In the gee, a Mariners when the disager of