The Morris County chronicle., 1906-01-30
BLOWS UP
Brazilian Irouclad Aquidaban Sinks
and 2l2 Men Perish.


Tragedy Occurred Near Port Jacarepc-
guA, Twenty Miles From Rio Janeiro--
Four Admlrals Drowned-- Thirty-siK
sailors wounded and IS Rescued--ves-
ri Went Down IN Three minutes.
Rio Janeiro, Brazil. Within three
faiuutes after an explosion in the pow
des magazine Of tie Brazilian turret
shlp Aquidaban. the ship with almost
all Of its crew and. officers sank dur
ing the night II Port Jacarepagua, !,
south Of this city The ship, which
was one Of the best fighting vessels
ia the Brazilian Navy, was being used
fossthe accommodation Of supernua er-
ary officers and men attached to the
! HotilIa escorting tlle cruiser Barroso,
having on board the Minister Of Marine
and his chief Of staff, who were in
5pectiI1g the sites proposed for 4 new
I arsenal.
~ Most of those on the ship were asleep
.Nwten the explosion occurred The big
way vessel seemed to fall apart, and
before any one could tell just what had
FtSStkI IL
been no time to lower a boat, and
these who were saved were picked up
hY boats sent ont by the other vessels.
-Four ear.Admirals-De Da
Graca, Candido- Brazil and De Larrigo
and 212 men lost their lives vixen
the ship sank Some were hurled out
OF their hunks Is the explosion and
faany of them were killed outright The
others were drowned in their cabins.
Ninety eight of those aboard were
saved. There will bet national funeral
for the victims
Just how the explosion occurred in
the powder magazine has not been de-
fermined and probably never will be.
The entire sea tragedy happened so
quickly that none of the survivors bad
time to note anything. Those on the
other vessels lying in the harbor, sim
ply know that a moment before the
explosion they saw the outline OF the
Aquidaban and that everything aboard
seemed to be all right. Then came a
loud report, part OF the vessel seemed
to be torn from the other part and
three minutes later she sank beneath
the waves. There was not an Outcry
from those on board the ship, and out
side of the loud report and the disap-
Dearance Of the ship there was nothing
to show the terrible tragedy that had
been enacted
The loss Of the Aquidaban IS seri-
Gus blow to the Brazilian Navy T,he
vessel took a prominent part in the rev.
olutiofl Of 1893-D4, having been the
flagship of Admiral Cust0dio Jose de
'Mello, who for time was Minister of
Marine, and who secretly seized the
Brazilian warships in tile harbor Of
Rio Janeiro and declared against Presi-
dent Peixoto Many of the harb0r
forts yielded to Mello when he arrived
with his squadron, and for about six
months after he began the insurrection
he kept up an intermittent b0mbard-
ment Of the forts that remained loyal
to the President
President Peixoto ordered a Govern
ment feet which had been cruising in,
American waters to assemble and give
fight to the insurgeut ships, and when
the loyal feet arrived several Of the
insurgent vessels surrendered AIello,
however. retained the Aquidaban and
several other ships, and he attacked the
Goyernment feet but was repulsed.
The Aqudaban was torpedOed several
days after the repuIse, but was sEbse-
quently raised and rebuilt She was Of
1850 tons displacement and 6200 horse
power. She WAS built in England in
1885, and cost $I,725, ,0G0 Her arlna-
inent consisted of four Q 4-inch Canet
guns, four 5.5-inch guns AMI several
smaller guns. She also had five tor
pedo tubes, and had speed Of fifteen
knots