The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-28
MANY DANGERS ABOARD SHIf

o. FER tCCJDENTS THiT HAPPEN
re- THE MtN-O'-W lRSW iN.
WIucL, 81 the Oily mpta when SHE First went
into s'ommissi on open HAtrhes That
Are Pitfalls -Coalinx FuII Of In hsnces
Acts ~ Nerve That saved Vessels.
The recent accident on the battleship
Georgia. q turret tragedv.w was OF q character
that might be classed az ordinary" in our
sea service. That is. turret fatalities Of
similar sort had preo eded Il. Naturally
CROUCH, not 10 much is heard Of the acct
cn,s on our men-o'-war in which only one
man is killed AZ a time. But there are
plenty Of these accidents. Most Of them
are unavoidable. The point IL, however,
that il il easy for a man-o'-warsmsn.
whether he belongs aft or for'ard. to be
killed or MANNED. The MAJ who serves
IN any capacity or rating On a ship Of war
must keep both eyes peeled for. trouble
from turn TO in the morning till pipe down
at night.
There is no looking out fer and guarding
against some Of the accidents. Sc mething
new in the way Of a man-o'-war casualty
is break ing ont all the time. b seasoned
mau-o-warsman can sidestep the usual
pitfalls that lie knows about, but he cant.
- course. grid himself against the unusual
deadly happenings on shipbosrd.
For example, when the Olympia. Admiral
Dewey's flag ship in Manila. first went into
commission at the Mare Island Navy Yard
three unusual accidents happened on board
q or alongside Of her within the space of
a fortnight.
The first occurred when she was being
warped into the Mare Island drydock to
get an extra coat Of keel paint. A naval
constructor. one Of the brightest young
officers Of the service. was standing at the
top Of the dTydock. experimenting the job
" getting the Olympia placed on the rest
ing blocks. A heavy hempen hawser that was
being manipulated TO pull the cruiser into
the dock suddenly snapped under the strain
and the shore end of the broken hawser
caught the young officer alongside OF the
head. caving il in "a IL ned been hit 10y an
express engine and killing hin instantly.
The men attached to the Olympia locke
upon it az a bad start for the cruiser and
we're blue about IL.
4 week or 40 later the Olympia was maxi
ing her way into the roadstead at San Diego
on a practice run with her crew TO timber
up the machinery. test compasses. try
some OF the gun and grease up the ship
generally. As the mudhook was dropping
in the San Diego waters a seaman got his
legs tangled up in the anchor chains, which
formed a loop around them and cut them
on above the knees almost az clean as IL
the job had been lone by the surgeons
knife. The seaman died almost imme-
distely The crew OF the Olympia re-
garded this second Incident with gloomy
eyes. They didn't care for the Olympia
from then on.
A few days later a practice charge was
put. into one OF the guns of the secondary
battery to test the piece. When the charge
was fred the recoil Of the gun was terrific.
IL recoiled OF its carriage. striking a gun
ner's mate right in the middle and knock
Ing the life out OF him in an instant. Some
body had forgotten to put the mixed oil and
alcohol in the recoil chamber OF the piece.
This liquid. being forced through the holes
Of the recoil cylinder by the recoil OF the
gun. would have given the %gunner's mate
his life had il been there. This third fatal
itv on board the new ship in 50 = ort a
space OF time settled il with the crew. When
The Olympia got back to San Francisco the
new crew went over the side OF her like
rats. and virtually a whole new crew had
TO be shipped for the cruiser before the
Olympia could take to deep water again
There are any number Of foolish little
things that can happen to cripple or kill u
man-o'-war's man. Not so long ago, for
instance. on board one OF the ships OF the
Pacific feet a seaman was walking aft from
beneath the to'gsllant fo'c'sle just az one
OF the for'ard mess cooks was walking for
ard with the hanging table Of his mess on
his shoulder. Now this seaman had been
lodging mess cooks carrying mess tables on
their shoulders for more than twenty years
- and mess cooks packing their tables do
dart around with tina gear in a mighty reck-
less way. This time, tn ough, the seaman
wasn't quick enough and one OF the rongs
Of the mess table caught him smack in his
right eye, destroying the sight OF 1t.
On one Of the ships OF that same feet a
machinist was cleaning some machinery
with turpentine. IL was bilge cleaning day
In the engine room too, and the bilgcs were
open. r dynamo wasn't running, and 80
il was dark in that corner OF the engine
room. The machinist struck a match to
enable him to examine a bolt or nut or some
thing. The flame OF the match burned his
finger so that he jumped, and in jumping
he kicked over the five gallon can Of turpen-
tine alongside Of him. The turpentine
Slugged into the open bilge and the match
that the machinist tossed down, holding on
10 its flame, fell smack on the turpentine in
the bilge, setting it in q blaze. The blaze
wrapped itself aroun the greasy dungarees
Of the machinist and he was q sadly burned
man before other members Of the black gang
ran 10 him, threw him down and beat the
fire out Of his dungarees. In the meantime
that blazing turpentine was heating tho
after bulkhead Of the engine room, and on
tho other side Of that bulkhead was the after
magazine filed with its usual store Of loose
powder in cans. The black gang had q
mighty busy time Of it.
It's the easiest thing in life for WOOL
gathering men-o'-war's men to step into
open matches, and he man who comes
out Of that sort OF n mess alive is usually
MANNED for life. They're forever breaking
out something on board Misunderstanding