Middletown transcript., 1907-07-27
WASHINGTON LETTER
WAsHINeroN, JulY 2Otb, loO7

4 u tnC 0dtetCc1iR ACOlktu - 40 AAA1StA-
mystery as ever. But some small
admissions on the part OF the Navy De
partment and talk among naval officer
| is helping to clear it up and show that il
has az the bottom the same element that
| is back of most crimes in human life, the
gold hunger. It will be remembered that
the explosion occurred in the after tur-
ret of the Georgia off Boston during tar.
get practice. According to the official
statement, charge of about 200 pounds
of smokeless powder was being loaded
into one Of the IL inch guns when it ex-
ploded. 1t was said that floating spark,
coming from somewhere, had set fire to
the bag containing one of the powder
charges, and that this had gone off. set
ting fire to the other bag. Here was a
mystery. It was intimated that the float
ing spark might have come from the
smokestack of the battleship or that it
might have been a spark wandering
around in the air after the discharge Of
the gun. This explanation was good
enough for the outside world. But those
familiar with the construction of war
ships knew thatit was almost physical
impossibility for spark to "foat" into a
turret. The automatic gun ports and in
side ladders were all against such sup
position. Also, the silk bags in which
the powder charge is encased are not
f1imsy enough to be set on fire by any or
binary spark. The fact remained that
ten of the men in the turret died of their
burns and dozen others were so seri-
ously injured that several more of them
still may die. The Department was of
course shocked and grieved. So was
everyone who knew of the accident, But
the Department had no idea how it hap
pened. All of the electric apparatus in
the turret had been carefully insulated in
view of some previous accidents of the
same sort. All of the guns had been
fitted with automatic air blasts to prevent
s'fare backs" /" that is hot gases coming
out of the breech of the gun when another
charge was neing put in. And most OF
all, there was never according to regula-
tions second charge Of powder in the
turret before the one in the gun had been
fired. There are automatic doors leading
down to the powder magazine that are
shut as soon as one charge for the gun
comes up and the turret is clear of any
powder except that in the gun. Just
here is where an official statement from
the Navy Department gave a clue to the
story. One of the men Of the gun crew
was commended for his heroism and
pronptitude in shutting the breech OF
the gun and preventing the explosion OF
the charge, mark the words already in
the gun" That is an explanation OF the
whole business. There is big money
prize for efficient target work in each OF
the squadrons. Itamounts to about 81 900
for the turret crew making the best
record in squadron practice. But there
is more money at stake than that. There
is keen rivalry among the gun crews and
there are individual bets'an1 pools made
by both officers and men, for the iackies
are sporting fraternity and they are
willing to back their opinions with six
months, wages if necessary. There are
some occasions on record where $4,000
has gone from one ship OF squadron tc
another as the result of the fnel round
with the big guns. This is in addition
to the government prizes. The result il
that the men work up to the limit o
luman quickness in handling the guns
1t is the shots that hit that count in the
score, and the loading OF the gun is cu
down as low as possible to give an extr'
fraction of second for laying it. Tht
Georgia had been firing at the rate of ont
shot every ten or eleven seconds from
the gig guns. Just think of it, to ran
home an 800 pounds steel proiectile ant
nearly 200 pounds of powder, close ant
lock the breech, and sight and fire thu
gun. And the Georgia was making abou
ten hits out Of eleven shots. Is it no
very likely that when the gun was fret
there was second charge of powder al
ready in the turret waiting to be thrown
into the gun? That is the view of nava
officers who know the circumstances
The statement of the Navy Department
bears out this theory. Evidently tn
second charge of powder had beel
brought up from the magazine and wa
waiting there in the turret in order t
save time and help win the feet priz
land the side bets. Men will take lon
changes where there is a big roll of none.
at stake. OF course the Navy Depart
ment will never know officially that th
regulations were violated. But every
body knows unoficially already how tn
regulations were violated and how tn
accident happened.
~
There are a good many faired size
jobs that will probably go begging 70
the lack of competent men to ell them
The Interstate Commerce Commission
about to start its new system of railroa
accounting. The Commission has ful
nished the railroads with sets of book
that they must keep to the exclusion {
all others, and on which they mui
render monthly reports. OF course, th
c,a..*za:sa;a,,@ @.rar,fs axnerk railroad az
countants to check these reports. Thes
: clerkships pay about 81, 500 year. Nc
a princely salary, but still pretty goo
S e.. .tl,o rrn,,arnnnart servica. Tha nnl