Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1904-04-28
The Battieship "MIssOuri"
Disaster.

The awful calamity that befel the
battleship Missouri" on Wednesday,
April 13, when she was engaged in
target practice off the portIof Pensacola,
is the latest of series of similar acci-
dents which have occurred within the
past few years on our own and foreign
warships. Some eighteen months ago,
while the Russian battleship "Sissoi
Veliky" was firing her forward pair of
12-inch guns, there was a terrific ex-
plosion, which killed every man in the
turret, and completely wrecked the In
terror of the same. The massive top of
the turret was blown bodily into the
ar, and half of it, falling backward up
on the deck, killed twenty-eight men
that were standing there in a group.
About six months later there was an
explosion during target practice in one
of the turrets of the 12-inch guns of the
British battleship MARS, which result
ed in great loss of life Then followed
the fatal explosion in one of the S-inch
gun turrets of our own battleship Mas
sachusetts In each case it was i'm
possible to determine definitely what
was the cause of the explosion, the
various boards of inquiry being able
merely to suggest various conditions
which might have rendered the ex-
plosion possible. In the present case,
because of the fact that every officer
and man that was in the turret of the
Missouri" was killed. it is likely that
the disaster will have to be written
down as one of the unexplained mys
teries of which there are so many TO be
recorded in the history of the use of ex-
plosives both on sea and land. The
least that we can say for the unfortu-
nate dead is that at the present writing
there is not the faintest shred cf evil
dence that these noble fellows were do
ing aught but discharging their duties
with that intelligent care and con-
scientious fidelity which have won for
our navy its high reputation throughout
the civilized world. Such accidents as
these are part of the perpetual risks
which are taken by those who serve
their country on the high seas risks
that are by no means confined to the
hour of battle, but are present and are
always seriously contemplated by of
ficers and men when ammunition rooms
are opened, guns are cast loose, and the
terrific weapons of modern warfare are
put to the test.
Most earnestly do we deplore the un-
seemly and officious haste with which
such a large section of the press seem
ready to rush into an ill-timed and most
ungenerous suggestion of carelessness
and incompetence, almost before the
victims have breathed their last breath
in obedience 60 the call of duty.
Whether on the Russian ''Sissoi Veliky,
the British MARS" or the American
Missouri" the victims of these shock
ing disasters are as fully entitled to the
Donors of naval heroism as if they had
died in the fercest climax of great
sea fight.
The board of inquiry, when it comes
to investigate, will carefully sift out
what scanty evidence is Forthcoming,
and if there be any blame, we may be
assured it will be rightly placed. But
just now it looks as though the only
criticism that could be made is that the
accident may have happened through
the rapidity Of the firing. If this is the
case, it will simply mean that our
gallant sailors have died because they
were striving for that very proficiency
in the handling of their guns. which it
has been the effort of cur own and
foreign navies to promote to the highest
degree.
The accident happened TO a modern
12-inch 40-caliber gun of the latest pat
tern built for our navy. These guns
are probably the most effective 12-inch
guns in existence today, having
greater energy per weight of gun than
any 12-inch pieces at present in use in
any navy. 1t should be distinctly un-
derstood that the accident is in no way
attributable to the gun itself. Sci. Am.