Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1907-05-16
DISASTER TO NAVAL
VESSELS RECALLED
Some of the Awful Catastro
Plies That Have Occurred
in Times of Peace.

10" VI iIel MdJesLSs snip captain.
The first fully rugged turret ship tried
IN service ut sea. Within two years
four large armored vessels of the
first class have been DESTROYED In
time of peace. AS the total number
of such vessels does not exceed two
!, hundred the proportion of loss has
been disquieungly large
All the earlier ironclad catastrophies
were due to instability or collision,
and thus differ from most of the dis
asters which in the last ten years
have oyertaken fighting ships
The ironclad Captain was lost in
the Bay of Biscay in September. 1870.
She was cruising with the Channel
ileet In dirty weather when gale
stfuck her and she capsiZed, CARRYING
down With her nearly five hundred
Cilicers and men. The survivors told
how there came heavy lurch-how
The angle OF the heel moved quickly
from Is degrees to % degrees and
the ship lay on her side upon the
sea, while all on board waited to see
whether she would recover. She
never recovered, but turned slowly
over and was gone. Her gallant can
tain, Burgoyne, met his end with his
snip, refusing an oar which was offer.
ed him by the few men who managed
TO gain Il boat.
The British lronclad Vanguard.
cruising with the Channel fleet five
wears later, was struck by the ram
OF the Iron Duke In thick fog i'm
the Irish Sea. The water poured in
quickly and nothing could be done to
save the ship, but the crew were
safely removed. One hour after the
collision she went TO the bottom.
The next battleship lost at sea was
the German Grosser Kurfuerst. She
was cruising with the German active
squadron off Dover in May, 1878, when
she was rammed by another German
ironclad, the Koenig Wilhelm. She
was struck almost amidships, with a
terrible crash. The armor was torn
through as If 1t had been orange peel
ana an immense volume of water
poured into tile ship Her captain
made d desperate attempt to run her
into shallow water, but only five
minutes after the collision she went
down. carrying with her nearly three
hundred of her crew. The Koenie
Wilhelm suffered such injury on her
ram and forward that she, too. was
IN great danger of laundering.
But the most tragic of all these
disasters was the loss of the new
hattieship Victoria, by collision June
-, 1893. She was the flagship OF
Admiral Tryon, commanding the Med
lterranean fleet, and was engaged in
carrying out the "gridiron" evolution
In which two lines of ships turn IN.
ward toward each other. The signal
was made to turn, and the battleships
Victoria and Camperdown. at the
head of the two lines, began to move
toward each other. Three minutes
after the signal it was clear to all
that n collision was imminent, but
another minute passed before the bu-
giles sounded the &C." which Is the
order for taking collision stations ana
closing watertight doors. With n
crash the Camperdown's ram tore
through the Yictorla's bow and drove
the flagship back seventy feet or
& more in the water.
An effort was made to save the
Victoria, but in vain. The engineers
and stokers remained at their posts
and the ship steadily moved ahead to
reach shoiA water. The rest of the
crew We're called on deck and drawn
up in line on the port side. AS the
ship tilted up the order to jump was
given. Then the lines broke and the
men threw themselves into the water.
Almost at the same instant the
Victoria dived, stem foremost, and
disappeared In cloud of steam, taxi
ing down with her her Admiral, who
remained at his post to the last. On
the Victoria persisted 33S officers and
men OF those who escaped alive
Rear Admiral Jellicoe Is today Direc-
tor Of Naval Ordinance
The Camperdown suffered great
damage in the collision, and, had the
weather been stormy, would probably
have gone down too.
The feature Of this disaster was,
however, the order and discipline dis
played by all, the calmness of officers
and men in the face OF death, and the
heroism of the engineers and stokers.
who never stirred from their posts,
and died to man in her engine
rooms
Loss of the Maine.
Five years passed arterithe loss OF
the Victoria before the explosion that
destroyed tho American batleship
Maine in Havana harbor. She was
lying there the night of February Is,
1898. when noise was heard like n
shot. Observers in other ships looked
out. and saw the bow of the Maine
lift. Then came an uprush of smoke
and flame and n prolonged roar. The
shattered hull settled at the bottom.
OF the crew 253 officers and men
were killed, and 100, of whom SO were
wounded, were rescued.
The exact cause of the disaster is
still a mystery, but it is thought that
mine was exploded under the ship
and that the SHOCK aynlodad tha