The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-21
U. S. WAR NURSES
KILLED ON Way
TO BATTLE line
Mysterious Accident Fatal to
Women Going to France.
Naval Gun Crew Was Practic-
ing U-Boat Shooting.
MEMBERS AMBULANCE UNIT
Shell Scattered Among Group
Nurses and Surgeons.
Suspicion That Germans Tam
pered With the Shells.


pered With the Shells.
New York, May 21.-America's first
women victims of the war were two
nurses killed by explosion of a shell
during target practice Sunday aboard
an armed American merchantmen.
The ship reached her port of depart
IRE today, having put back with the
bodies of the two nurses. One other
nurse was wounded. All were mem
bers of a medical unit organized in
Chicago. The two women killed were
Mrs. Edith Ayres and Miss Helen
Burnett Woods
In some inexplicable manner a shell
! exploded and portions of the casing
were flung into a crowd of the nurses
and doctors watching the American
! gun crew at work.
! The medical unit aboard the ship
was under command of Captain Frank
Besley and included 65 nurses, rs
physicians and surgeons and 1873
privates.
The ship had sailed from an Amer
| lean port late last week. The acct
dent Sunday occurred about $50 miles
off the coast. According to informa-
ton available this afternoon, it was
plosion occurred.
A United States revenue cutter met
the liner and bore the dead to port.
Both Mrs. Ayres and Miss Woods
were experienced Red Cross nurses,
! having seen service and been drilled
in this work for three years. A month
ago they joined the corps in active
service and were en- route to Europe
when the accident occurred.
Story of Accident.
Mai Fred A. Besley, a professor in
Northwestern university, Chicago, who
was in command of the hospital unit,
this afternoon gave the following ac-
| count of the accident:
AN unavoidable accident during
target practice on the steamer carry
ing the Northwestern university base
hospital No. IL occurred Sunday aft
ernoon, resulting in the instant death
of two nurses, Mrs. E. F. Ayres, aged
IS, of Attica O., and Miss Helen B.
! Woods, 80, of Evanston, Ill. Miss
! Emma NATHAN, "a, of Columbus, Neb.,
was seriously but not dangerously in
jured.
mo other member of the unit was
injured. The morale of the personnel
/ was splendid. The nurses were sitting
on the upper deck aft on the port side,
200 feet from the stern gun during
target practice. Only one shot was
fired from the stern gun. At this time
judgment must be suspended as there
| is no accurate evidence to warrant
! making a positive staten ent as to the
exact cause of the accident. The first
officer of the ship was standing within
ten feet of the nurses when they were
killed.
Major Besley was standing within
three feet of the nurses who died and
relating his personal story of the ac-
cident, said:
Accident Mystery.
I'm the target practice which oc-
CURED at p. m, Sunday, when we
were "a hours out the two forward
guns were fired first. Then the stern
gun. The nurses were sitting in deck
chairs watching the target, which was
a long distance away. We saw the
shell strike the water at a great dis
lance from the ship Immediately af-
terward Miss NATHAN, who was injur-
ed, touched me on the shoulder and
said these girls are hurt 1 looked
around and saw one of the dead girls
sliding from her chair to the deck.
We do not know how the accident oc-
CURED. 1 sat up until 1 o'clock in the
morning hearing evidence, but we
could get nothing definite. We found
bits of the decorating cap which is
placed in the shell behind the powder
scattered around the deck. There was
a line of life boats hanging between
us and the gun We had to stoop to
look under the life boats to see the fir
ing. The gun was not shattered. Its
breach remained intact and none of
the gun crew knew what had hap
pened until we had conveyed word to
the officer in charge.
1T was the gun crew which several
weeks ago reported firing at a sub
marine in English waters, the same
stern gun having been used in that in
cident-"
4 Flag at Half Mast.
The ship which sailed returned to-
day. her flag at half mast Official
announcement of the cause of the ac-
cident has been withheld by both
version obtained when the steamship
reached quarantine was that the shell
. from the gun had exploded about ITS
feet distant just as it was striking the
water and that pieces of the shell
ricochetted back and struck the nurses.
Another was that the accident was
caused by a breach explosion or a
defective shell as the gun was fired.
Another was that the shell exploded
as it was being loaded. As soon as
the ship had reported at quarantine
she came up the bay and anchored
1t was announced no one would be
allowed aboard the vessel
Start An Inquiry.
1t was expected navy board of in
quiry would investigate the accident
Meantime, II was said, the snip would
probably remain in port
The suggestion that a defective shell
may have caused the death of the two
nurses was made by persons who were
recent passengers on the American
. liner St. Louis. They declared some
of the shells used on the St. Louis ex-
ploded near the n1uzzles of the guns
: and that one exploded in a piece. rem
dering it unfit for use The gun crew