The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1914-12-03
BRITAIN LOSES
SECOND WARSHIP
Explosion Entirely Destroys Bull
wark, With Crew of Nearly
Eight Hundred Men.
REAL CAUSE is UNKNOWN
Only II Of the Men on Board Saved
Petrograd Claims Victory in Pc.
land, but Gives No Details
French Claim to Have Re-
captured Dlxmude.

Sheerness, England, Nov. est is
believed that the explosion on the Bull
wark was caused by the fall and
bursting of 12-inch lyddite shell in
the vessels magazine.
Sheerness, Nov. 28.-The British
battleship Bulwark was blown up
Thursday while lying at It's moorings
in Sheerness harbor.
About eight hundred lives were lost,
as the vessel sank before the dense
cloud of smoke and flame cleared
away. Fourteen members of the crew
escaped death and we're picked up by
vessels which quickly came to the
scene.
Next to the dreadnaught Audacious,
sunk by mine off the north coast of
Ireland on October q, the Bulwark is
the most serious single loss that the
British navy has so far suffered in the
war.
Plan to Sft Disaster.
1t is believed that the Bulwark's ex-
plosion occurred In the ships forward
magazine. Whether 1t was caused by
accident or design is a question to be
determined by the commission which
has been appointed to investigate.
There is little evidence that the
ship was torpedoed or struck by q
mine.
The force Of the explosion was so
great that on some of the other yes
sells lying in the harbor there was not
piece of glass or crockery left whole,
even half-inch plate glass in the port
holes being shattered.
Houses seven and eight miles dis
tant were shaken and windows broken.
Pieces of the ship even were thrown
six or seven miles on the Essex shore.
The Bulwark. which was one of the
older battleships. cost 91,000,000
(s5,000,000). II displaced $4,000 tons
and had been in service about fifteen
years.
Churchill Announces Loss.
London, Nov. 27.-It was officially
announced by Winston Spencer
Churchill, first lord of the admiralty.
that the British battleship Bulwark
had been blown up off Sheerness, on
the Thames, 35 miles down the river
from London.
A vice-admiral and a rear-admiral
who were at Sheerness reported that
they we're convinced that the disaster
was caused by a magazine explosion.
Mr.. Churchill, speaking in the house
of commons concerning the disaster,
said: The loss of the ship does not
sensibly affect our military position,
but regret the loss of life, which was
very heavy. Only IA men were saved.
All the officers and the rest OF the
crew, which ordinarily numbered be-
tween 700 and 500, persisted"
German Naval Victories.
German submarines have sunk two
more British steamships and a Ger
man mine has sent to the bottom a
British naval collier, according to adj
mission of the British admiralty.
The submarine victims were the
merchantmen Malachite and Primo.
They were destroyed in the English
channel.
Coming on the heels of the appall-
ing disaster which befell the British
battleship Bulwark, when it was blown
up with the loss of more than $50 off,
GERS and men, these new evidences OF
hostile naval menace at the very gates
of London has served to spread con-
sternation over England.
Churchill Seeks to Allays Fear.
A supreme effort to allay the grow
ing terror of the British people was
made in an extraordinary speech in
the house of commons by Winston
Churchill, first lord of the admiralty.
He reviewed the operations of the Brit
fish feet in the war and contrasted the
present and prospective strength of
the British feet with that of the Ger
man fleet, declaring new warships
were being finished so rapidly in Eng
land now that Great Britain could lose
one dreadnaught every month for a
year and still retain her present SUI
periority over the Germans.
AT the beginning of the war we
had 81 dreadnaughts and Germany had
81" Mr.. Churchill said. I'VE have lost
six of our older armed cruisers; Ger
many has lost two. Great Britain had
36 modern light cruisers; Germany had
rs. We have lost two; Germany has
lost or interned six; we have added
six"
Replies to Criticism.
Referring to criticism Of the ad.