Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1907-07-20
EIGHT met DEATH |
HORRIBLE EXPLOSION ON The
BATTLE ship GEORGIA.
OFF Cape Cod Last Monday About
Noon, While Target Practice Was
Going on, Case of Powder Ex-
ploded from an Unknown Cause
Lieut.. Goodrich Among the Killed.

Boston, July 16.-Eight men dead
and 10 injured was the grim record at
a late hour Monday night of the result
of powder explosion on the battleship
Georgia off Provincetown. Six were
dead when the battleship reached
here and two more. one of them Lieu
tenant Casper Goodrich, Of Brook Ign.
N. Y, son of Rear Admiral Goodrich,
died later at the hospital.
With the arrival of the Georgia there
became known the details of the most
taken place along the coast of New
England.
The accident occurred shortly before
noon Monday while the Georgia's crew
was at target practice off Barnstable,
in Cape Cod bay. In some manner, as
yet unexplained, two bags of powder
became igpited, and in the terrible
flash that followed the entire turret
crew, consisting of three officers and
l 8 men, were engulfed in fire and re-
ceived horrible burns, one one officer
dying before the ship reached port.
The explosion occurred in the after
superimposed turret, where the men,
under command of Lieutenant Casper
Goodrich, son of Rear Admiral Good
rlch, commandant of the New York
navy yard, and Midshipman Faulkner
Goldthwaite and John T. Cruise, were
operating the S-inch puDs
The guns in the forward turret had
finished eight rounds of practice and
the guns of the after turret had fired
one round. Two cases, as the big 100
pound bags of powder are called, had
just been sent 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 breach of one of the eight-inch
guns ready to insert the charge. At
this instant the turret was seen to be
smoky, and two men who stood near
the loader saw black spot on the bag,
indicating that the charge had ignited
and was smoldering. The loader dis.
covered the spot at the same instant
and thrive himself forward on his face,
at the same time shouting a warning
to his turret mates. The other men
who had seen the spot were Eich and
Hansell, and they also threw them
selves ON the floor of the turret.
Before the other men in the turret
could understand what caused the
leaders, cry of warning there was a
binding fash, as the burning powder
exploded.
Flames, smoke and nauseous gases
filled the little superstructure, in
which more than a score of men were
confined. AS the powder was not con-
fined, there was no report, nor did the
vessel suffer any injury, but every nook
and corner of the turret was filled with
flames. The loader, who was, of
course, nearest the powder, was terri
bly, burned, as was every other man in
the turret with the exception of Eich
and Hansell, who, although scorched,
escaped with injuries much less severe
than others.
Blinded by the smoke and flames,
choked by the acrid, penetrating, gas
eous fumes, and maddened with pain,
the men screamed in agony. Some
staggered blindly up the ladder to the
hatchway in the top of the turret floor,
begging piteously for assistance.
Lieutenant Goodrich and Seaman
Maleck became crazed, staggered up
the iron ladder to the top of the turret
and then threw themselves headlong
into the sea, in a despairing effort to
choose a death by drowning in prefer
ence to death by slow fire.
When the smoke of the burning pow
der had cleared away the shipmates of
the unfortunate men rushed to their
assistance and tenderly the suffering
sailors were lifted out of the fire. black
ened turret and quickly removed to the
ships hospital, where their burns were
dressed by the surgeons.
In the meantime Lieutenant Good
rich and Seaman Maleck had been res
cued by launch that was returning
from an inspection of the target.
The surgical staff of the Georgia
was soon reinforced by the surgeons of
the vessels IN the fleet, who had been
informed of the accident and summon
ed to the scene.
A wireless message telling the brief
details of the accident was sent to the
government wireless station on the
highlands of Cape Cod and thence over
the land wires to the navy department
at Washington. An examination of
the turret after the accident failed to
show that any serious damage had re-
suited to the ship.
That floating spark caused the ac-
cident seemed evident to several men,
but whether from a gun or a funnel,
furnished topic for discussion.
Rear Admiral Goodrich, accompan.
led by Mrs. Goodrich and their two
daughters, arrived late and went at
once to the bedside of Lieutenant