The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-04
MANY DANGERS
 ABOARD SHIPS
QUEER ACCIDENTS THAT HAPPEN
 TO THE MAN-'O-WARSMAN.


 III Luck of the Olympia when She First
 Went Into Comm1ssiOn - Open
 Hatehes thst are Pitfalls-
 Cealfng Full of HI Chances
 -Ncrvs that Saved
 Ships.
 The recent accident on the battle ship Georgia, . turret tragedy, was of character that might be classed as ordinary in our sea service. That IS. turret fatalities of similar sort had preceded 1t. Naturally enough. not so puch is heard of the accidents on our men, -'or-war in which only one man Is killed at . time. But there are plenty ever. that 1t is easy for man-'o- wars man, whether he belong aft or for'ard, to be killed of maimed. The man who serves in any capacity or rating on a ship of war must keep both eyes peel ed for trouble from turn to in the morning till pipe down at night.
 There Is no looking out Tor ana guarding against some or the accl- dents. something new in the way or man-'o-war casualty Is breaking out all the time. The seasoned man. wars man can sidestep the usual pltIalis that he knows about. But he cant. or course. gird himself against the unus-
 For example. when the Olympia. Ad- miraI Dewey's flagship in Manila, first went into com mission at the Mare Island navy yard three unusual ac- cidents happened on board of or along side of her within the space of a fort night.
 The first occurred when she was be- ing warped into tL! Mare Island dry dock 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 dry dock, experimenting the job of getting the Olympia placed on the resting blocks. A heavy hempen hawser that was being manipulated to pull the cruiser into the dock suddenly snap ped under the strain and the shore end of the broken hawser caught the young officer alongside of the head, caving it in as if he'd been hit by an expres engine and killing him instant ly The men attached to the Olympia looked upon 1t as a bad start for the cruiser and were blue about it.
 A week or 50 later the Olympia was making her way into the roadstead at San Diego on a practice run with her orew to Timber ID the machinery, test compasses. try some of the guns ana 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 off above the knees almost as clean as If the job had been done by the surgeons knife The seaman died almost Immediately. The crew of the Olympia regarded this second incident with gloomy eyes. They didn't care TOT the Olympia from then on.
 A few days later d practice charge was put into one of the guns of the secondary battery to test the piece: When the charge was fired the recoil of the gun was terrific. It recoiled off its carriage, striking a gunner's mate right in the middle and knocking the life out of him in m instant. Some- body had forgot to put the mixed Ql and alcohol in the recoil chamber or the piece. This liquid, being forced through the holes of the recoil cyIln- der by the recoil of the gun, would have given the gunner's mate his llfe had 1t been there. This third fatality on board the new ship m so short space of time settled 1t with the crew When the Olympia got back to san Francisco the new crew went over the side of her like rats. and virtually whole new crew had 10 be shipped for the cruiser before the Olympia could take to deep water again.
 There are any number of foolish It, tie things that can happen to cripple or kill a man-'o-warsman. Not so long ago, for inAtance, on board one Of tho ships of the Pacific fleet a seaman was walking aft from beneath the gal lant fo'c'sle just as one Of the TOT ara 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 for more than twenty years and mess cooks packing their tables | do dart around with that gear In mighty reckless way. This time, though | the seaman wasn't quick enough on the dodge and one of the prongs or the mess table caught him smack Tn ms | right eye. destroying the sight Of IL. On one of the ships of that same 1 fleet a machinist was cleaning some machinery with turpentine. It was bilge | cleaning day in the engine room too, l and the bilges were open. The dynamo | wasnt running and so 1t was dark Tn | that corner of the engine room. The machinist struck a mach, burnt ms | finger so that he jumped. and in Jump ing he kicked over the five gallon ca can l of turpentine alongside of him. The tur2entine eluggled into the open bilge and the match that the machinist | tossed down, holding on to its flame | fell smack on the turpentlne In the | bilge, setting it in a blaze. The blaze | wrapped itself around the greasy dungarees of the machinist and he was a sadly burned man before other mem- | bers of the black gang ran to him, threw him down and beat the fire out | of his dungarees. In the meantime that blazing turpentine was beating the at- ter bulkhead of the engine room, ana | on the other side of that bulkhead was | inc after magazine. filled with its 1 usual store of loose powder In cans. The black gang had to get mighty busy to subdue that burning turpen- 1 tine. . - l It's the easiest thing in life to | wool athering men-'o-war's men to | step into open hatcnes. ana the man
 who comes out of that sort or mess l alive is usually maimed TOT life. Ihey re | forever breaking out something on | board war ships-breaking out anu 1 overnauling ammunition, breaking out and overhauliug equipment stores | Jack-o'-the Dust's stores, engineer
 stores. tackle, gear, junk of every | sort. and when mess call is piped While l this sort of work Is going on, the men | engaged upon the breaking out worK are pretty liable to leave the hatches l open in their eagerness to get 10 the l mess tables. It's always pretty mlddllhg dark around under deck hatches' ana a man-o-war's man must have some | .Ltu- +b., prascieppe of the cat ana