The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1904-04-14
20 DEAD BY
EXPLOSION
Awful Naval Disaster on Bat
tIeship Missouri.
FIVE OFFICERS KILLED
The Magazine Had To Be Flooded
To Save the Ship From
Destruction.
FIVE OFFICERS KILLED

| PENSACOLA, Fla, April l4.-By the
| explosion of 1000 pounds of powder in
| the after twelve inch turret and the
| handling room of the battleship Mis-
souri,, Captain William s. COwles COM
mauding twenty men We're in
| stantly killed and five injured, of whom
| two will die. The Missouri was on the
| target range with the Texas and Brook
| lyn at practice about noon when IA
charge of powder in the twelve inch
left hand gun, ignited from gases, eX-
ploded and dropping below, ignited
| four charges of powder in the handling
room and all exploded.
Three rounds had been fired from
the after twelve inch gun, and shell
| had been seated and two sections Of
| powder rammed home when the eX-
plosjon occurred, killing every officer
and man in the turret and all but three
| in the handling room.
The second pointer had fired the third
shot Of his string when the charge ig-
nited. The fourth shot was being load
| ed and from all indications the first
half Of the charge had been rammed
home and the second section was being
rammed home when gases from the
shot previously fired, or portions of the
cloth cover, ignited the powder. The
breech was open and dull thud gave
notice of something unusual. No loud
report was made, but flames were seen
to leap from every portion Of the tur-
ret A few seconds later another ex-
| plosion, somewhat more fierce, oc-
| Cured. This was in the handling
room below, where 1000 pounds of
| powder, or four charges ready to be
hoisted above, had ignited Fire quar-
ters were sounded, and every man of
the ship responded. and the magazine
and handling rooms were flooded with
water.
In less than FIVE seconds after the
| first explosion two streams of water
were being played in the rooms, and
when volunteers were called for every
man Of the ship responded. eager to so
| into the turrets and rescue the crew.
| Captain Cowles gave his commands,
and but for his presence of mind and
that of the officers of the ship the Mis-
souri, would have gone down.
The second explosion occurred near
one of the magazines and so hot was
the fire that the brass work Of the
| magazines was melted. Smoke and
the fumes of the burned powder made
it almost impossible TO enter either the
turret or handling room, but officers
and men, with handkerchiefs over
| their faces, made efforts to rescue the
| men inside.
Leading the rescuing party was Cap
tain Cowles. The officers endeavored
to keep MIN from going below, as men
fell unconscious as they entered and
had to be pulled out by their comrades,
but unheeding their advice the COM
manding officer rushed below, followed
by Lieutenant Hammer, the ordnance
officer, and Lieutenant Cleland Davis.
Captain Cowles caught up a dying
bluejacket in his arms and staggered
to the deck with him. The bluejacket,
with two others from the handling
room, had crawled partly from their
places Of duty when they had been
overcome. Before the fumes of the
burning powder had left the turret Off
GERS and men were lifting out the dy-
ing and dead men.
Three minutes after the explosion all
were on deck, and the surgeons from
the Missouri, Texas and Brooklyn We're
attending to those not dead. The
twenty-five men of the turret were
found lying IN heap. They had start
ed for the exit when the first explosion
occurred and had just reached there
when the more terrible explosion in the
handling room occurred, which burned
and strangled them to death. Leuten-
ant Davidson, the officer in charge of
the turret, evidently had given some
| command to the men, as he was ON top
of the heap of men, having fallen there
after he had allowed them to pass him
to get out of the turret
The bodies were hardly recognizable,
the terrible and quick fire having burn
| ed clpthing from the bodies Of the men,
anMM~