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Show EIGHTY PERSONS KILLED BY MAGAZINE EXPLOSION French Battleship lena Is Blown up by the Accidental Discharge of a Torpedo. t Toulon. The powder ningi'.Inos on board the French battleship lena blow up nt l::ifi o'clock Tuesday afternoon after-noon and, ns a leiult, Cuptnln Adl-gard; Adl-gard; captain of the battleship; Captain Cap-tain llertler, chief of staff or tho Mid-Iterranean Mid-Iterranean hqundrou and ftom seventy seven-ty to eighty bluejackets aro dead, while Hear Admiral Mnnceron nnd hundredB of men are suffering injuries injur-ies Naval circles are aghast and the public Is stunned by tho appalling ca-tobtrophe. ca-tobtrophe. coming so soon after tho loss or the French submarine boat l.utln, In which sixteen men met death. The cnl ho uftorpart of the lena was blown to pieces. The bodies of Oie victims were hurled through tho nlr by a succession of explosions, and paiilcstilcken workmen nt tho arsenal arsen-al fled ror their lives from tho vicinity vicin-ity of the dryilock. ScoroB on board the lena Jumped overboard onto the stone quays and sustained serious Injuries. In-juries. The primal cause of the accident was the explo-don of a torpedo. What caitsod the explosion Is not known, but the powder magazines of tho lenn were set on lire, and the resulting explosions ex-plosions practically destroyed what was considered one or tho best vessels ves-sels In the French nnvy The lena had Just undergone u final inspection or her hull and machinery, thu latter part having been partly overhauled preparatory to Joining the squadron on Wednesday The crew was In Its rull strength, being composed or tho rear admiral. 21 other olllcers nnd lillO men The magazines had been replenished recently nnd contained con-tained many tons or Kwdcr, as well as a number of charges for torpedo.. |