The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1911-09-26

WlisOtl htbO benU HleSSuBS OI COuuOlcucs
, to the French Governm ent.
LIRERTE VISITED NEW YORK
One OF the Hudson.Fuiton visitors-ROl
Of French Naval Disasters.
Many Americans have personal recol
lections Of the Liberte. for she and hel
sister ships tho Justice and Verite rep
resented France in the naval review ol
the Hudson-Fulton celebration in 1900
They were the first OF the foreign vessel,
to arrive. and they lay from September y
to October in the North River of Sixty.
ninth street. Their special mission was
to bring NJ. Darboux. the envoy of France
to the celebration.
The Liberte was first class battleehip
Of the pre- dreadnought type. She cost
about s6.OOO.OOO. Her normal dsplace-
ment was l4.0O0 tons. as compared with
the 23. 4e7 tons OF the dreadnought Courrbet
launched this year. but up to 1909 the
Liberte and her three sister ships. the
Justice. the Verite and the Democratic
were the biggest war vessels OF the French
navy.
The Liberte was laid down at st. Nazaire
in 1909 and launched on April 10. 1905
She was the type ship of her class Her
complement was 7eS men. Her length
over all was 452 feet. her water line length
40 feet. her beam 79T feet and heI
maximum draught % feet. She carried
four IL inch guns. ten "a inch. thirteen
nine Founders and ten three pounders
She had two submerged torpedo tuhee
and two above water.
Her main armo belt was about eight
feet wide and about eleven inches thick
at the water line. She had balance ced
turrets. electrical hoists for all her guns
and all guns were manpuvred electrically
Her big guns would fire three rounds In
two minutes The designed speed OF the
Liberte was eighteen knots. but her best
recent record was l7.75 knots. On hel
trial trip she made 1881 knots.
The destruction Of the Liberte is the
climax OF an extraordinary series o
accidents on French naval vessels. no
less than eighteen of which occurred In
one year. 1907. Two battleships. two
cruisers. two submarine boats and one
destroyer have been lost since the latter
part OF 1905 and five battleships. five
torpedo boats and two submarines have
been damaged
The worst disaster in the terrible series
was the loss of the battleship Jena with
lls men on March IL. 1907. The Jena was
lying in dry dock in the Toulon dockyard.
which is a naval station OF the first class
on the Mediterranean. and after Brest the
most important naval station in France
At l:3o O'Clock in the afternoon the Jena
magazines blew up and flying pieces Of the
shi p were hurled immense distance.
through the citv and suburbs.
The theory as to the cause OF the ex
rlCsion finally accepted was that spon
thneous combu ustion resulted from chem
ical deterioration Of the B powder with
! which the cartridges were loaded. Thii
powder was shown to be very unstable
In composition.
In October 1908. the submarine Lutin
with all hands, thirteen men. was lost OH
BZerta.
On January u. 1907. the submarine
Algerien sank in Cherbourg harbor. On
February there was an explosion on the
torpedo boat No 800 al Lorient and eight
men were killed. On the same day the
battleship Brennus touched bottom near
Hyeres and was damaged On February
IL the cruiser Jean Bart went ashore on the
African coast and was a total loss. On
February 20 three men were killed and
nine wounded by an explosion in the
boiler room of the cruiser kabyie al
Toulon. On March IL came the Jena
explosion. On March IL the coast defence
ship Fulminant was accidentally tor
pedoed near Brest On March 1s two men
were killed and one man was fatally in
jured in a collision of the torpedo boat No
263 and the destroyer Epee near Ajaccio.
Corsica. The craft had been manRuvring
without lights. The torpedo boat had to
be beached.
On March IS the destroyer Def ran
aground near Les Sables d'Olonne and
an explosion on Torpedo Boat No. la7. at
Cherbourg. scalded two men. On May q
the cruiser Chanay was wrecked on the
Chinese coast and was total loss. Or
May 20 "A condenser ripe on the Pstrie
burst and injured several Of the crew
On June 10 the submarine Gymnote sank
when workman opened her s!uices. On
July 3, on the trial trip OF the battleshir
Justice, "A steampipe hurst and causeS
panic but no one was hurt On July i
the electric machinery Of the submarine
Rubis was made unmanageable by a leak
On July q the battleship Hoche had to
be sunk at her dock at Toulon to save heI
from fire that was working toward her
magazine. On August three men were
killed and seven wounded by the bursting
Of the breech of a gun on the training shiI
Couronne. On August IL, on this same
schoolship. the Couronne. six students
Of the French artillery school were killed
and eighteen were wounded by the ex.
plosion OF the gun around which they were
gathered while an instructor showed
them how TO push shell home.
Naval inquiries into the long string OF
accidents apparently resulted in max ing
the French navy more careful. The
only accident of importance in i0Os was
the killing OF twelve men by the bursting
OF a shell or of a 7.e inch gun on the cruiser
latouche-T reville on the Hyeres Islands
on September -, Every member Of the
gun crew was killed
Five days ago. on September 20, a CUR
on the armored cruiser Gloire burst in
the course of target practice in the Medi.
terranean. One gunner was killed. five
died after the accident and eight members
Of the crew were hurt.