Los Angeles herald., 1910-11-16
TuqS Rush to Rescue of Monitor
Which Is Rapidly Filling
with Water
ARMoR PLATE is STOVE IN
One End of Puritan Sinks When
Big Hole Is Blown Below
Water Line
Associated Press)

FORT MONROE, Va, Nov 15.-High
explosive tests on the monitor Puritan,
anchored in Hampton Roads. today
damaged the vessel so seriously that it
was necessary to send hurry call for
tugs to the Norfolk navy yard to tow
the battered warship to a drydock.
The tests were required by pro-
vision in the ordnance appropriation
bill passed by the last congress.
Two charges of 200 pounds each,
nitroglycerine gelatine, uncontined ex-
cept as to thin covering Of sheet iron,
were exploded. In the first test the
explosive was placed against the side
of the after turret of the monitor;
in the second against the side of the
vessel, just above the water line.
Naval officers and experts present
admit more damage was done than
they anticipated.
The first explosion cracked the side
plate of the turret, which was eight
inches thick, and forced it inward about
eight inches. A cat and two chickens
placed inside at the points gunners
and sighter would occupy were not
killed.
The second explosion bent the ten
| inch side plate of the ship SO badly,
opening a big hole below the water
line, that the stern end of the Warshlp
sank to the bottom in less than two
minutes after the explosion.
AS the Puritan draws eighteen feet
and was in only nineteen feet of water,
she did not disappear below the sur
70 All n "a O1inUtRS at least one
of the big compartments was almost
| filled with water which was pouring
up from below deck and over the stern.
Until the vessel is drydocked 1t will
| be impossible to determine the exact
extent of the damag or how much of
the lower part of the vessel was
flooded.
| ARMOR PLATE BENT
1t was not believed, however, that
the armor plate was cracked, although
/ it was bent and stove in.
| The water was pouring in, it was
thought, through holes below the armor
| belt, which extended three and half
feet under water, or through seams
caused by the tearing apart of the
| plates.
Of the two explosives the second was
the more severe, the discharge causing
the monitor to shake as if she had
/ D66n STRUCK Dy u SI1dll 0dILAQudhe1
and it was felt slightly even by other
vessels lying 500 yards away.
Captain Austin M. knight, president
of the special naval ordnance board,
who remained on the Puritan to dis
charge the explosives, said the shocks
were severe.
While it is not known positively that
the new explosive, the invention of
| Willard s. Isham, is more destructive
than the present form, which does it's
work from the inside rather than from
the outside, 1t was practically ac-
knowleged that serious consideration
must be given it.
| Most of the navy and army officials
and powder experts who went down
to witness the tests were aboard the
tug Wahneta. Among them were
Rear Admiral Mason, chief of the
bureau of ordnance; Chief Constructor
Watt of the navy, Major O'Hern of
the ordnance bureau anG General Ar
thur Murray, chief of the coast artil-
lery.
| AS soon as the Puritan is drydocked
the special board on naval ordnance,
composed of Captain Knight, presi-
dent; Lieutenant Commander Richard
H. Jackson, and Philip r. Alger, pro-
fessor of mathematics at Annapolis
will examine her injuries and report