The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-09-29
TERRIBLE NAVAL DISASTERS

Monday morning witnessed q ter
rible naval disaster at the port OF
Toulon, France. A fire broke out In
the French battleship Liberte at 4
O'Clock, and after fighting it three
quarters of an hour with no success
and no hope of preventing the flames
from reaching the magazines, the sigr
nal was given for the men to aban-
don the vessel and save themselves
II they could. Some got aboard
launches that had come to the res
cue, some jumped overheard, and
some were yet on the decks when the
explosions began. They continued
at intervals of about one minute,
each explosion being greater than the
preceding one, and the last one shot
the vessel to pieces to great extent,
throwing wreckage and human Boz
dies in every directions for hundreds
of yards.
This is one of the most terrible
naval disasters known In history. One
of about equal severity occurred near
Tripoli;; off thescoast of, Syria, on the
22nd Of June, 1898, when; two Eng
lish battleships maheuvering ran foul
of each other and the flagship Vic
toria was struck by the Camperdown,
infiicting such damage that It, sank
in a few minutes, carrying with 1t
338 officers and E'mien, besides Vice
Admiral Sir George Fryon of the
English navy rvs
The scenes in both cases were
heart-rending. The Victoria sank In
deep water without warming. Ths
Liberte sank In a Port surrounded by
other vessels, but in the midst of ex'
plosions that swept everything fol
some distance and rendered aid al
! most, impossible.
When a vessel goes down, it hal
its death struggle, resembling iii
some degree the death struggle of
living thing. When 1t loses its pois.
It goes from one extreme to another
II water ,pours in at one end 1t ca
reens to that end, and then settling
back the water.ninside the vesse
PUSHES toward the other end, carry
ing destruction in, its way ant
drowning people like, rats, in tn
compartments it surges through. Re
covering from the, roll in one, direc
ton 1t goes the other way, plungint
to a greater extreme and tearing it
self to pieces internally. These
plunges are kept up with greate1
force until it dives beneath the waves
and goes down, sometimes. reversing
itself several times, going, down II
zig-zag course. .gAs y,. -l..,,gs
While 1t ID plunging or settling
the air and loose furniture In thu
vessel keep escaping and coming Il
the surface, and all wooden pieces
rise with force commensurate with
the depth to which they have beer
drawn. In the case of the Yictoris
It kept splitting things until it reached
great depth, and they shot on
above the surface with such force
i that they went through the bodies o.
the struggling seamen like bullets
or mangled them in the upward rush
Another horror is the whirl or mael
strom caused by the sinking of thu
vessel. Men may have jumped over
board and succeeded in getting some
hundreds of feet away and yet b
drawn into the vortex and dragged
under, or escaping that, the plung
ing of the vessel may release wreck
age at various distances from WHERE
It sank, and these may mangle thu
person who is swimming successful.
and expecting to be picked up. b,
the rescuers.
After the great tragedy is enacte'
there is silence; and through it al
the sea never varies its conduct no