Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1924-06-19
BLAST KILLS 4S
ON BATTLESHIP
Turret on u. S. S. Missis-
sippi Blows Up During
Target Practice.

San Pedro, Cal.-The lives of three
officers and forty-five enlisted men
have been snuffed out aboard the
dreadnaught Mississippi in the navy's
greatest peacetime disaster which
brought to tragic climax week OF
sham battles and target practice.
Aboard the hospital ship Relief lay
the dead. killed by premature ex-
plosion in the Mississippi's No. tur-
ret, and the injured we're aboard the
New Mexico, flagship of division NO
4 Of the battle fleet, while members OF
naval board of inquiry prepared to
open investigation
1t was a bareback from one of the
guns that shot death in flames and
poisonous gases back into the turret
through it's open breech. A second
gun, the breech locked, let loose in
the harbOr here as the Mississippi
steamed lone with it's dead anc IN
jured from the drill grounds and
hurled steel projectile dangerously
near to an outbound passenger liner.
just how the fatal explosion oc-
Cured is as yet undetermined.
A partial list of the dead compiled
unofficially follows:
Lieut.. Thomas Zellers, twenty-five,
Long Beach, Cal; Ensign Marcus Err
win, Jr., twenty-five. battleship Missis-
sippi; Ensign William G. McCrea,
twenty-three, battleship New Mexico;
renee Henry Willis. seaman. first class;
Vernon Brumfield, coxswain; Andrew
Rubin Kinney. seaman, second class:
Brigham Foster Smith, gunner's mate
first class: Leslie Malone. gunner,s
mate. first class; Doyle Shaw. seaman.
seaman first class; John Albert Mo
Cormick, seaman. second class; Stanley
Joseph Skrnas, boatswain's mate; Al
bert Leonard Lawson, seaman. first
class; Fred Graham Ever, seaman. Sec
and class; William Howard Ward.
quartermaster,- third class; James
Thomas Wood, fireman first class;
George Allen Byers. boatswain's mate
first class; James Durvard Holiday.
seaman. first class; Philip Cunningham,
seaman. first class; Wallace Waltham
Frederick William Zacharias, seaman.
first class; William George Cook. sea-
man. first class: Stephen Beto, seaman
man. first class: Bartholomew David
Kinley, seaman, second class; e. e
Caldwell, canaan. first class; Joseph
second
Eugene Magiil. seaman. first class;
e Mls'am Peter 4 u1 Fiynn neam seaman. rst
class; Howard 4. Walkup. seaman first first
class; John D. Sharkey. seaman. first
class; Clarence T. Bourgeois. seaman.
first class; Floyd K s,iI5,ga SEAMAN
second class; Andrew J. Sloan, fireman.
second class; Rodney L. Anderson. sea-
man frst class; Floyd A. Raymond:
yeoman; Cederic Kerr. seaman. second
class; Bradford w. Smith, seaman, first
class; Ted Carlyle Reagan. seaman
second class; Norman Lee B sa,ri, coz cox
man. first class: Homer Sylvester
Bridges.
The explosion occurred while the
battleship was practicing high eleva-
tion firing. taking advantage of the
roll Of the sea to gain distance. Ac-
cording to reports from members OF
the crew, one sailor called for cleo
tricity to be turned on for the charge
and the switch was thrown open be-
fore the breech of the gun was closed.
causing the terrific charge to fire back
ward into the turret.
The explosion also ignited four bags
of highly explosive powder in the tur-
ret adding to the catastrophe. A
number Of men in the handling room
above the turret were terribly burned
by the escaping flaming gasses
Admiral Pratt, who in the absence
of Admiral s. A. Robinson, is in COM
mand Of the battle fleet, said that the
disaster was the worst in the history
of the navy. Other tragedies in which
great loss of life occurred, he said,
were to the u. S. S. Missouri in 1905,
to the Kearsarge in 1905. and in the
Honda (Cal.) destroyer wrecks last
September.