The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-07-16

Boston, July 15.-with seven of her Of
ficers and crew dead and fourteen others
either. dying or suffering from terrible
burns received in an explosion of pow
der in the after superimposed turret, the
battleship Georgia steamed slowly up
Boston harbor from the target practice
grounds in Cape Cod bay late today, and
landed the dead and injfred men at the
Charlestown navy yard With the arrl-
val of the Georgia there became known
the details of the most terrible naval ac-
cident that has ever taken place along
the coast of New England. The accident
occurred shortly before noon today, while
the Georgia 5 crew were at target prac-
tice off Barnstable. in Cape Cod bay In
some manner as yet unexplained. two
bags of powder became ignited and in
the terrible flash that followed the en-
tire, turret crew, consisting of three Off
GERS and eighteen men, were enguifed in
fire and received horrible burns, one Off
Ger and five men dying before the ship
reached port. The victims of the acct
dent are:
Dead.
Goodrich, Lieutenant Casper, Brooklyn,
N Y.
Goldthwaite. Faulkner; midshipman,
Kentucky.
Burke. William Joseph, seaman, Quin-
cy. Mass.
Hamilton. George G.. ordinary seaman.
South birmingham Mass.
Brooklyn. n. Y
Thomas, William NJ, seaman, Newport.
Pair, William Brooklyn
Seriously Injured.
rr,,rn T.t,,, n Y,,idcI,;,p.ar N-o5,,l-cl- q .
hands and face burned very seriously.
SchIapp, Frank, boatsvain's mate, sec
ond class, North Adams. Mass; back,
chest. arms and face burned
HanSell. Charles, gunners mate. first
class. New York; face and hands burned.
Taglund. OTley. chief yeoman. Richford.
Mimi; arms back and face burned.
Walsh. Edw0Td J., seaman, Lynn.
Mass; chest and face burned, fatally.
Rush. John A, ordinary seaman, New
York; face. arms and chest burned. prob
ably fatally.
Rich. Charles L.. ordinary seaman;
Frankfort. Ind; face, arms and hands
burned.
Fone. John ~. ordinary seaman. South
wick. Mass: two-thirds of body burned.
/ Gilbert. Harold l., ordinary seaman,
Southwick. Mass: two-thirds of body
/ burned.
Maieck. john c.. ordinary seaman.
1 Cleveland. o.; arms and face burned
Meese, Louis O., ordinary seaman. Be
rea, O.: arms, face and chest burned
ROsenbergeT. Samuel L.. ordinary sea-
man, Philadelphia; arms and face burned.
Thomas, James P, ordinary seaman.
/ Brooklyn. N y: face arms. chest and
! back burped, fatally.
] Four other men received minor injuries.
! Their names were not given out and they
were not taken off the ship.
Explosion in Turret.
| The explosion occurred in the after
Superimposed tUrret. where the men. I'M
der command Of Lieutenant Casper Good
rich, son of Rear Admiral Goodrich. CON-
mandant of the New York navy yard, and
/ Midshipmen Faulkner Goldthwaite and
John I, Cruise, were operating the eight
! inch guns.
The guns in the forward turret had fin
/ ished eight rounds of practice and the
/ guns of the after turret had fired one
round. Two cases. as the big 1O0-pound
! bags of powder are called. had just been
( sent up through the ammunition hoists
and were in the arms OF the loader. whose
name was withheld by the ships officers
/ The loader stood at the breech of one OF
/ the eight-inch guns ready to insert the
charge. At this instant the turret wa.
/ seen TO be smoky and two men who
stood near the loader saw a black spoi
on the bag, indicating that the charge
| had ignited and was smouldering The
/ loader discovered the spot at the same
/ instant and threw himself forward or
his face, at the same time shouting q
: warning to his turret mates. The ofhe,
men who had seen the spot were FjcI
/ and Hansell and they also threw them
selves on the floor of the turret.
1 Warning Came Too Late.
Before the other men in the turret eoul,
t understand what caused the leaders or,
of warning there was a binding flash a,
the burning powder exploded Flames
E, smoke and nauseous gases filled the lit
tie superstructure, in which more thar
a score of men were confined As thu
powder was not confined there was n,
report. nor did the vessel suffer any IN
jury, but every nook and corner Of tn,
turret was filled with flames The load
er, who was of course. nearest the DOW
der, was terribly burned as was ever,
other man in the turret. with the ex.
ception of Eieh and Hansel who. al
though scorched. escaped with inillrie.
much less severe than the others.
Two Jumped Overheard.
Blinded by the smoke and flames
cholsed by the acid. penetrat ting gaseou;
fumes. and maddened with pain. the mel
screamed ~ agony. Some staggered
in the top OF the tuTret. while other.
crept along the turret floor. begging pite
ously for assistance Lieutenant Good
:, rich and Seaman AIaleck became crazed
staggered up the iron ladder to the tor
of the turret and then threw themselve.
headlong into the sea. in despa Trims
effort to choose a death by drowning ii
preference to death bv slow fire
When the smoke of the burning powde
had cleared away the shipmates of tn.
unfortunate men rushed to their assist
ancc ard tenderly the suffering sailor:
were lifted out of the fire~blackened tnr
ret and quickly conveyed to the skip.
! hasDitaI where their burns were dressed