The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-27


 ate.
 Tn the opinion of naval men it was an internal explosion that put an end 10 the hattleship. which for 19 years has done service at home and abroad and lately had been guarding Englands shores. There was no great upheavai , of water such as would have occurred 1 if she had been torpedoed or struck by a mine. Instead the ship was en- vsloped in smoke and flame and when this had cleared nothing could be seen but wreekage floating on the water Houses in towns seven and eight miles away were shaken by the ex- l plosion and even before men on ships | anchored nearby could reach their own | docks the Bulwarl has disappeared l The sea was strewn with wreckage. while pieces of ship were thrown six or seven miles on the Essex shore 1 Considering the size of her navy. Great Britain has been singularly free from disasters of this character. Nev- ertheless, when the French warshfp Jena was destroyed by an internal ex- plosion in t907 all cordite ammunition was taken from all the British ships and carefully examined. Refrigerators were installed in the ships to keep the | powder cool.
 l The Bulwark, which was ono of the older battleships. cost f1,oo0, ,000 fso,- | DOC ,000)
 | The explosion which destroyed the Bull wark occurred at 7:bs a. m. A vice ad- | miral and a rear admiral who were at 1 Sheerness reported that they were con- i vinced that the disaster was caused by magazine explosion. There was no upheavel of the water. When tho smoke had cleared away the ship had entirely disappeared
 An Inquiry will be held tomorrow and
 the admiralty believes that It may throw
 some light on the occurrence
 MT. Churchill, speaking in the House of l Commons. concerning the disaster said:
 The loss of the ship does not sensibly
 affect our military position but I regret
 the loss of life which was very heavy Only l2 men were saved. All tho officers
 and the rest of the crew which | sup nose an,9unted. to betweett lta and 500 1 perished7
 Houses Shaken 1 The force of the explosion aboard the boat was so great that houses in sheerness and even in South End scv- en miles away, and on the other side or the Medway, were violently shaken The people fled into the streets in alarm. When the great ship blew np. dense clouds of smoke and flame shot into tho air. The vessel disappeared beneath the waves In three minutes. So l tremendously was the Bulwark rent l mat II was impossible to render her any assistance. Immediately after the explosion the vessel was plotted out l by smoke and as the veil slowly lifted n handful of men were seen struggling In the water Small craft rushed to their aid and picked them up. some of the crew were badly mutllated. A | touch of the dramatic was added to the catastrophe by the fact that the band or the Bulwark was playing when hu explosion came.
 The disaster occurred while the Bull wark was lying at anchor off the naval port of Sheerness, near the mouth of 1 the Thames. but the officers Of tho port scout the public impression that | the vessel was the victim of a German submarine. This seems to be supported | by the absence of an upheaval in tho water as the first lord of the admir- l atty explained.
 Heavy Loss of Officers Although only i5 years old and no longer l on the first fighting line, the Bulwark still was useful unit. The loss of the
 ship, however. was nothing compared with the heavy loss in trained officers and men with whose relatives Mir. 1 Churchill expressed fin the House of Com- 1 mons his deep sympathy and sorrow. The Bulwark in her early career was quite favored ship. For a long time she was the flagship of Admiral Charles Beresford in tho Mediterranean.
 The British battleship Bulwark, 15OoO tons displacement, was laid down in 1899 and completed in 1902. She was All feet long, 15 feet wide and drew % feet of water Her armament consisted of four | 12-.nch, 12 6-inch guns, 16 12-pounders. six | 3-pounders and four submerged torpedo tubes She had n complement of 75o men. 1 Sheerness Is on the Thames at the mouth of the Estuary of the Medway. It | Is 3o miles down the river from London
 Tells of Explosion ] London. November. 26.--(7:47 D. m.) An eyewitness who was on a ship | short distance from the British battle ship Bulwark when she was blown up off Sheerness gives this account: | q was at breakfast at about 10 minutes to 8 o'clock this morning, when l heard an explosion and went on deck. My first impression was that tho report was produced by the firing of a salute by one of the ships. but when l l got on deck I soon saw something awful had happened. The water and the | sky were obscured by dense volumes | of smoke. We were ordered at once to | the scene of the disaster to render what assistance we could. At first we could see nothing. but when tho smoke l cleared, we were mortified to find that the battleship Bulwark had gone. She seemed to have entirely vanished but a little later we detected a portion of the huge battleship showing about foifr | feet above the water.
 we kept vigil for the unfortunate | crew, but saw only two men. I don't know whether the other boats rescued 1 any one. One rnan we saw was dead" Another eyewitness said that when | the explosion occurred great volume | of flame and smoke shot into the air. | The ship seemed to split in two and then heeled over and disappeared in Hess than i've minutes.