The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-27
BA1TLESHIP BULWARk LOST IN THAMES BY AN EXPLOSION
British Naval Fighter Wrecked and Nearly All of Men Aboard Are Killed in Thanks giving Day Tragedy Say Explosion Was From With in.

Explosion Was From With
 in.
 London. Nov. 27-The British navy suffered sthe loss yesterday of a battle ship and at least 736 officers and men in a manner which mystifies and alarms the public.
 The pre-dreadnought Bu1wark, of 15,o00 tons and built at a cost of f1,- COG, ,000 ($5s000, ,0oO), blew up at her 1noorings off Sheerness in the estuary of the Thames and barely. thirty-fye miles from Lohdon.
 The known facts are that a tremen- dous explosion occurred while officers and crew were about their ordinary duties-t is reported that the band was playing-and in three minutes the shattered hulk of the ship had disappeared beneath the surface.
 Of a ships company of 75O at least the number may have been nearer 80o-aH except fourteen were ki1le by the explosion or drowned after few minutes struggle in. the water. The estimate of the loss was furnish ed in the House of Commons by Win ston Churchill First Lord of the Ad-- .1nira1ty sMr. Churchill attempted no explanation Of the cause of the dis aster and merely offered pthe opinionl that. the destruction of the Bu1wark is not a serious loss to Em glands naval power.
 It is permitted to say that Govern ment and public are most shocked over the further loss of so many train ed officers and seamen. A battIeship of obsolete type can be spared, but naval officers do not pretend to con ceal their concern over the destruc- tion of so many men. Up to yester- day the British navy has lost S,081 officers and men, if the estimate that 736 perished yesterday is accurate. An official report issued Wednesday placed the losses at T, s41. officers ana men.
 The Admiralty issued a statement last night saying that there are four teen survivors of the disaster to the Bulwark
 Adr1isa1 Lord harles Berssford. who fdruerIy made the BuIwark his fIagsh1p, said in an interview:
 People naturally will think of German spies as an explanation of the disaster. prefer to say nothing about that. It is certain that the magazine must have exploded. but I cannot imagine how 1t happened. Good cordite does not explode without a detonator. and inferior cordite is excluded by frequent tests.
 There was a fire a while ago with in the magazine of the batt1eship Re venge. Sailors quenched it and the magazine did not explode.
 s.The magazine of the Bulwark was in q very safe position and was pro- teeted by every modern device. Pos sibly a shell or fuse was dropped, but even this ought not to have exploded the nagazine.''
 The Admiralty win hold an inquiry tomorrow for the purpose of fixing the cause for the annihiIatfon of a. war -=-. ..s Of London and was as safe, presuma- ply, as any ship could be from even the extraordinary hazards of war. Enc only opinion put forward by naval of- dcers who made a preliminary inves- ligation Is that there was an acci- dental explosion of ammunition which was being loaded into the magazine of the Bu1wark and that the magazine blew up-
 x This Is the conjecture of a vice-ad- znira1 and rear admiral who were at 6heerness when the denonat3on rocked buildings for seven miles around They declare that there was no l1p- heavaI of water such as invariably follows the explosion of a mine or a torpedo launched from submarine They ind from what evidence there IS that the explosion was primarily in terna1-
 Pending an tnvesttgatdon and de-
 
 is unquesfionab1y fear in the minds of many that the Bu1wark was an- other victim of the daring under sea strategy Of the Germans The con- lecture may be utterly unWarTanted possibly 1gs since the Thames is so completely mined at the mouth that at would be difficult for a mackereI to slip through without knowledge of the safe passages. But the notion persists and will be held until the government is able to remove 1t by an acceptable report.
 Accidents of the character of the explosion in the BuIwark are very un- common in the British navy, or in any navy for that matter, and in war time. particularly, there is extraor- dinary care displayed in the handling of explosives and the safeguarding Of ships magazines. The last previous disaster of the kind was the unex- p1ained explosion which destroyed the French battleship La Liberte in the harbor of To1lon.
 It would have been difficult to find a better protected anchorage for a British warship, so far as the possi- bility of an attack by the Germans was concerned, than the estuary e the Thames. The Bulwark rode in deep water off Sheefness, on the south shore of the Medway There is no off cIaf statement as to what was taking place on board, and there is only a report that ammunition was being hoisted inta the magazine. Some per- sons at Sheerness say they heard the BuIwark's band playing lively air just before the explosion was heard. It is possible that not all Of the bat tIesl1fpss company of from 75O to 800 were aboard, but 1t is only a possi- bility at best, since there Is no shore leave granted to officers and men at such times as these.
 From sheerness, Chatham and other towns near the anchorage Of the Bull lrark, the report is that the explosion |, was so violent that houses were shak- an and rocked at least aeF en miles