Arizona republican., 1906-04-15

Immediately on receiving the cable gram Acting Secretary Newberry car ried it to the president at the White House and was authorized to send the foregoing expression of sympathy. He also communicated the sad news to Secretary Bonaparte al his home in Baltimore over the long distance tele- phone. Meanwhile by direction of Admiral Converse. chief of the naviga- tion bureau, Captain Potter. assistant chief and Commander Wilson were busily engaged in looking up the ad- dresses of the relatives of the victims in the accident and auditing telegrams acquainting them with the news. Nothing fn0re will be done in Wash ingtOn until further details are receiV- ed from Admiral Evans.
 The first feeling of the officers at the navy department after reading the cablegram was one of surprise that the accident had resulted in so little loss of life. The Kearsarges forward turret is of the super-imposed type; in other words the eight inch gun tur- ret sat upon the top of the 13-inch gun turret where the accident occurred. In
 the lower turret were twenty four men and in the upper turret sixteen men. The full charge of powder for a ! thirteen inch gun is too large to be ! handled by any one man, so it is di- 1 vided into sections in canvas bags
 and it was three of these. probably 1 just enough to fill one compartment in i the ammunition hoist which ignited i The cause of the accident in the case ! of the Missouri was entirely different | from that of the Kearsarge, for the ! Missouri turret breech block was | swung open before the burning powder n-r.
 of the powder in the turret. The or ,. dnance officers were quick to guard against a repetition of an accident of
 that kind by fitting out the big turret guns in the battleships with automatic + spraying devices and air blasts which ! made it impossible to have a flare .
 back"
 Naval regulations prescribe exactly i what is to be done in a case of this kind. The admiral in command or II ders immediately a court of inquiry to
 ascertain the cause of the accident and place the responsibility therefor, and court martial will follow if any one is found al fault.
 The Kearsarge while not one of the latest is regarded as one of the best battleship in the American fleet. She
 is commanded by Captain Winslow, is of 11,520 tons displacement; is 375 feet | in length and seventy-two feet in breadth and twenty three and a half | feet in draft, with a speed record of
 16.S2 knots and a battery of twenty l two guns four inches and more in calibre and thirty-four guns below that size She was launched in 1893
 and was commissioned ip 1900.
 Lieutenant John NJ. Hudgins the
 only officer who lost his life by the ex-
 plosion in the Kearsarge, was a native
 of Virginia and was appointed to the naval academy from that state in 1890. l He was assigned to the engineer corps
 upon leaving the academy in 1894 be-
 cause of his particular aptitude for l engineering and for his mechanical
 skill. He took an especial interest in | wireless telegraphy and became an ex- | pert in that line. He was personally l identified with development of the 1 wireless system as now in use by the | navy, having been attached to the bureau of equipment during the ex- ] periments and inauguration of the | system.