The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-11-16
Another Destructive e
Force May Be Added
to Art Of Warfare.
NAVAL OFFICERS
WITNESS TEST
Two Charges Are Sent Against
Old Fighter Puritan and That
Vessel Is Very Badly Dam
aged-Five Men Remain
Aboard During
Shocks.

Fort Monroe. Va. November 15.-
High explosive tests on the monitor
Puritan, anchored in Hampton Roads.
to-day damaged the vessel so seriously
that 1T was necessary TO send hurry
call to the Norfolk navy yard to have
tugs sent up at once to tow the bat
tered warship to dry dock. The tests
made were required by provision in
the last ordnance appropriation bill,
which held UP the balance of the ap-
propriations for the year until the
tests were completed.
Two explosions were made, each
with 200 pounds of nitro-glycerine
gelatin. uncontined. except as to a thin
covering of sheet iron. In the first
test the high explosive was placed
against the side of the aft turret OF
the monitor; in the second against
water line.
Naval officers and experts present
acknowledged that more damage was
done than they had anticipated.
Cracks Side Plate.
The first explosion cracked the side
plate of the turret, which was eight
inches thick. and forced 1t inward
about eight inches. A cat and two
chickens placed inside in the same
positions that the gunners and sight
ers would occupy We're not killed.
The second explosion bent in so bad
ly the ten-inch side plate of the ves-
sci. thereby opening big hole be-
low the water line. that the rear
end of the boat sanis to the bottom
in less than two minutes after the
explosion.
AS the Puritan draws eighteen feet
''and was only in nineteen feet of wa
ter. she did not disappear below the
surface OF the greedy green waves.
But in few minutes at least one
of the big compartments was almost
filled with rushing water and water
was pouring up from below deck and
over the stern of the old fighter.
Until the vessel is drydocked It will
be Impossible to determine the exact
extent Of the damage below the water
line. or how much of the lower par,
of the vessel was flooded. 1t was not
plate was cracked, although 1t was
bent and stove in about ten inches.
The water was pouring In, 1t was
thought, through holes below the ar
NOR belt, which extended three and q
half feet under water, or through
seams caused by the tearing apart Of
the plates AT the point where the
second test was made the vessels plate
was ten inches thick.
Second More Severe.
OF the two explosions the second
was the more severe, the hydro
glycerine causing the monitor to
small earthquake, and 1t was even
felt slightly on other vessels lying
about 500 yards away. Captain Aus
tin NJ. Knight president of the spe-
cial naval ordnance board, who re-
NAMED on the Puritan to discharge
the explosive, said after 1t was over
that the second shock was quite se-1
we're. Even the first shock, he had
acknowledged earlier, was greater
than he had anticipated.
Almost on the spot where the su
perlority of new form of lighting
vessel. the ironclad, was determined
forty-eight years ago, to-day there
was discovered possible new de.
was not shown positively that the
new explosive, the invention of Will
lard S. Isham, is more destructive
than the present form of explosive
which does it's deadly work from the
inside rather than from the outside,
nevertheless, 1t was practically 40
knowledged that serious consideration
must be given to the new outside en-
plosive. Mr.. Isham himself was pres
ent to witness the tests. With the
first test he was not satisfied, claim
ing that If it had been against a flat
instead OF rounded surface 1t would
have worked much greater havoc.
The second explosion accomplished
ha ha
resistance of the frames and the ef-
feet below the armor belt was what
he wanted to have determined by the
test. and he said afterwards that he
felt sure examination in dry dock
would prove him right.
On the Puritan with Captain Knight
at the time OF the explosions We're
the ship cat, black as coal, the cat
which Mr.. Isham brought along to
place In the turret. the chickens and
four sailors.
Watch the Tests.
Most of the navy and army officials
and powder experts swho went down
to witness the tests We're aboard the
Rear Admiral Mason, chief Of the Bu-
reau of Ordnance; Chief Constructor
Watt, Of the navy; Major O'Hern. Of
the Ordnance Department. and Cen
eral Arthur Murray. chief of the Coast
Artillery. The Wahneta anchored
about 500 yards on port side OF the
Puritan, the side. on which the tests
were made, while about an equal dis
tance away on starboard was the
Monitor Tallahassee, formerly tho
Florida, which itself about was n
target for naval gun tests, About
nifty Coast Artillery students at this
place went out on the mne-planter.
General S. M, Mills, to witness the
tests
AS soon as the Puritan is dry
docked the special board on naval
ordnance, composed of Captain Knight.
president; Lieutenant Commander
Richard HI, Jackson and Philip r.,
aAlger, professor of mathematics at
Annapolis, will examine her injuries
carefully and make. report thereon,
(Continued on Second Page.)