The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-26
DANGER ON EMPHASIZES
SERIOUS AoCIDENTs WHICH HAVE BEEN AYERTED BY READY WIT.

.ReolSlcss Bravery of Sailors and Officers Necessary for Sailor to Keep Think- ing Head on His Shoulders.
 Said man posted on naval af- fairs, who has served in the navy, apropos of the disaster to the Maine:
 "The man-of-war's man or officer who neglects to keep careful, think ing head on his shoulders during all his waking hours aboard ship is liable to get hurt. Danger turks everywhere on a modern ship of war. The most care- ful naval sailorman often finds him. self on the very brink of disaster that without quick thinking and light ming action on somebody's part would land him and many of his shipmates, if not his whole ships company, in kingdom come. There are several navy to-day who owe their uniforms to rapid judgment and bravery in the face of impending magazine accidents
 "It was only the other day that a gunner's mate, serving on one of the ships of the North Atlantic squadron, exhibited a bit of swift head-and- hand work that will no doubt boost him far up the line for a warrant off cer's blouse. The ship was engaging in big gun practice at sea. Solid shot was being fired from the main battery of six-inch guns. The skipper was in the coming tower directing the firing. The gunner's mate was stationed in the coming tower with the skipper and serving as messenger for the car irving of verbal messages for the com manding officer to the officers in charge of guns. One of the big guns on the top-gallant forecastle was load ed, and on the very needle-point of be- ing electrically fired by the skipper from the coming tower, when the gun ner's mates sharp eye took in at a sudden glance that the breech of the huge gun was not locked. He didn't let out any discerning yell that might have caused the man at the electric button to give it an accidental push.
  terward that he would not have been able to emit a sound to save his soul when he made the startling discovery. He simply made two bounds for the exposed insulated wire in the coming tower connecting with the big guns electric fuse, ripped it in several pieces with all the strength of both his hands, and then collapsed in the coming tow { i-.. officer, with his finger still on the cleo tric button, gazing at him wonderingly.
 s'Wnat ails you, man?' inquired the skipper. Are you amuck, or what the devil it is?'
 s"The gunner's mate gasped for a minute and then related to the com- manding officer how near he had come to raging the to'gallant fo'c'sle even with the spar deck, and to killing a couple of dozen of officers and men, in- cludin' me and you said the gunner's mate. As a matter of fact, there would not have been much left of the cruiser forward of the mainmast had the big gun been fired with an un- locked breech. This gunner's mate will not hereafter find much difficulty in getting shore liberty, fourth-class or no fourth-class, when he wants to hit the beach, and the fiIigree tinsel that he will probably wear on his uniform ! not very long hence will not be con- fined to the exploding shell rating badge on his watch arm.
 BRAVERY OF AN APPRENTICE
 BOY.
 "one of the first of the steel ships of AZ. l.o mission three months before a level headed apprentice boy executed rap Id descent into the pit of the ships en- dangered magazine that put him at the top of the line for the gunner's war rant he now holds. The gun divisions of the crew were overhauing the af- ter agazine-breaking out fixed am- munition and cans of powder and gun cotton and cleaning and red-leading the bilges. The ship had not yet been equipped with electricity, and so closed lanterns were employed to Illuminate the Cimmerian darkness of the maga- zine. The lanterns as was customary on men-of-war before the days of nov able incandescent electric lamps on naval vessels, had been carefully in- spected by an officer before the hatch of the magazine was lifted. All of them were found in apparently tight order and the work of hoisting the magazine contents to the main deck by means of block and tackle was begun. The chief gunner's mate, under the direction of a division officer, was su- perfntending the movements of the men. He was leaning over the hatch, calling out orders to the hands in the pit of the magazine, when he knocked the lantern he carried in his hand against one of the steel sides of the hatch The spring that held the lamp within the lantern gave way and the lamp fell through the hatch. Still lighted, it fell bottom side up on top of a big can of powder that was hooked and ready to be hoisted to the deck The two men in the pit of the maga- zine had gone away aft in the maga- zine to haul more cans of powder to the hooks, and, their backs being turned to the hatch opening, they did not see the lantern lamp resting on the can of powder with the flame of the wick right next to the metal of the can The men at the top of the hatch were in a stupor of horror, but the alert ap- prentice boy, who afterward got his sword for the job, was wide awake He shinned down the tackle an instant after the lamp fell, grabbed the tackle