Connecticut western news., 1876-07-28
THE IRONCLAD DISASTER.
The English Steamer Thunderer Explod
 a Boiler with FrighifnI Loss of Life,

The English Steamer Thunderer Explodes
 Boiler with Frighifal Loss of Life.
 The following is from Portsmouth in Thunderer, while that ironclad was mak- ing trial trip. Twenty-Five of the crew are dead. The bodies are shock ingly mutilated, the flesh being stripped from the limbs by the escaping steam. The forward stokehole, where the explo- sion of the boiler took place, is divided from the after stokehole by watertieht bulkheads. The stokers in the latter were protected from the fragments caused by the explosion, but were liter ally boiled alive by the steam.
 The Thunderer is one of the four largest and most heavily armed vessels in the British navy. The first two ves- sells built of this class, the most power full men-of-war yet built, were the Thunderer and it's sister vessel, the De- vastation, both launched in 1872. The Thunderer is 295 feet long, sixty-two feet three inches broad, the draught forward twenty-five feet nine inches, and aft twenty six feet six inches. This en- ormous draught is made necessary by the weight of armament both defensive and offensive, and effectually prevents the entrance of the vessel into many harbors, while eminently fitting it for coast defense upon stormy shore like that of England. The guns, four in number, consist of thirty-ive-ton seven hundred pounder breach loaders, mount ed in two turrets, and are loaded and aimed by machinery, an unusually small number of men being needed to super intend the motions of the turret and it's guns, @ weight of over 25O tons. The two turrets stand upon deck given up at sea to the waves, the engines and quarters being all below the water line. Between the two turrets, however, is a spacious hurricane or flying deck, twen- ty-four feet above water, on which the boats are slowed and to which all open ings from the hold are carried.
 @ The armor on the vessel is from ten, twelve to fourteen inches thick, the thickest being on the tu1ret, the next on the sides of the vessel, and the thinnest on the sloping deck. The two turrets are not placed directly in line upon the deck, but stand each a little one side of the center of the hull, and gain in this way an advantage in a raking fire, as well as providing wider range to either Se%oS becomes motionless. As the peculiar construction of the vessel enables the guns and most of the plating to be kept close to the water line, greater stabili- ty is obtained than can exist in ordinary armor plated vessels. The Thunderer has nominal burden of 4, 4O6 tons and displaces or weighs 9,1O7 tons. Her speed averages thirteen knots an hour, and the vessel has two independent screws and two sets of engines, one un- der each turret-ths boiler forward having exploded in the present instance and carrying 1,600 tons of coal, or enough for sea voyage of 5000 miles. The vessel, like most turreted men-of- war, is mastless, and intended princi- .pally for coast defense, though able to take an ocean voyage. As the vessel has been in commission over three years, during that time being member of the channel squadron, it is probable that re- pairs to it's boilers have been found necessary and thai the accident occur red in trial trip over the course usually selected by British vessels. @H