Show i SIXTY LIVES LOST BY THE EXPLOSION T M I i OF BOILERS OF GUNBOAT BENNINGTON I Tlij buried the gunboat Kenning ads ileud nt San Diego Siinilny forK ty for-K < vcu of homIII a common grave In the little military burying ground n the iimmontory of Point Loran All about them Ho those who died in the ncMiini service In more trying linen JiavcstoniM yellow with ago hear HIP names of men who died at loul0ny111 the Mexican war others who gave up their life In tho conquest of California who followed Comma 1l i e nI Y < < Commander Young lore Stockton nt old San Iasqtml or who wore the bluo In tho civil war Army and navy paid their last tributes trib-utes no less sincere than tho grief of the representatives of pence From Fort ItosccraiiB came the llotb company com-pany coast artillery From tho city of Snn Diego tho naval reserves from the Universal Brotherhoods homo on Point Loma a company of Uhaltlclad representatives and from the government govern-ment ship Fortune n dozen sailors But tho most Impressive body of mourners was the fiftytwo men from tho battered llennlngton Beside these there were hundreds of civilians who brought their offerings of flowers to lay upon the graves Besides those burled at San Diego there arc eleven more bodies In tip morgues awaiting shipment to relatives rela-tives and there are two bodies still In tho 11 re room of the Bpnnlngton ranking tho total sixty There are fortynine wounded at various hospitals hospit-als and there aro sixteen missing making tho aggregate of victims 125 Of tho Injured at hospitals seven or eight aro expected to die Accident Seen from Shore Broken and blackened with her fins flying at halt mast her hold filled with fltteou foot of jvator the United States gunboat Bennlngtou lies beached on tho shores of San Diego harbor Sixty of her cress lay dead at city morgues the fate of a dozen more is I as yet undetermined and three score are stretched upon beds of pain In various hospitals This Is the result of the explosion which wrecked the trim little naval Craft and wrought such terrible havoc among her crow of 192 officers and men nt 1010 oclock on the morning of July 21 Tho Bennlngton at tho lime of the accident was lying In tho stream just off the commercial wharf at tho foot of H street The warship had received orders from the Nnvj department at Washington to sail for Port Hartford where sho was to moot tho monitor Wyoming and convoy tho vessel to Mare Island navy yard Steam was up and everything was in readiness for sailing when suddenly and without any warning whatever the starboard forward for-ward boiler exploded with a deafening roar The explosion was terrific People standing on the hOle saw n huge cloud of whlto steam rise above the Dennln ton Columns of nter wore hurled Into the nil amI for n dlstnnco of nearly twice tho height of tho spins of the vessel At the time of tho accident Com mander Iuclcn Young and Surgeon V K Peck wero on shore The two officers as soon as they learned of tho disaster hurried to the water front where Cornmander Young Immediately took charge On board the Bennington wero presented pre-sented terrible scenes The force of limo explosion had torn n great hole In the starboard sub of the ship and Ilia vessel was already commencing to list A section of tho upper deck was carried away from stem to stern Blood and wreckage wero dlstrlbut cd over tho entire ship tho after cabin nnd tho vicinity of tho ship adjacent ad-jacent to tho exploded boiler resembling resem-bling n charnel house Over It all hung the great cloud of white smoke which drifted slowly toward tho Coro nnda shore Commander Lucien Young said As to the cause of tho explosion I cannot say anj thing because I do not know What I do Know Is that the damage was caused by an exploding boiler or boilers The crown shoot of holler B collapsed and tho boiler head blew out breaking through the steel bulkhead separating It from holler D tho other main port boiler Immediately uft Boiler D was forced back the crown sheet collapsing and breaking down tho steel bulkhead separating It from the flrcroom livery ono In tho fire room at tho time wits killed Three bodies are now pinioned down by tho collapsed crown sheet of boiler D and four more by tho burst bulkhead These bodies we are now trying to release Ono of the bodies Is wedged In such shape that It may bo necessary neces-sary to dismember It In order to take It out The men who were Injured say that It has been the talk of the ship for at least six months that the boilers were defective Many of them had 1 + I leiiiud for a long time that just such nn accident would happen One of the men said that a year ago last Febru cry while the ship was at Magdalena bay the engineer of tho cruiser New York was sent for to Inspect tho boilers boil-ers nnd he reported that they wore In KOCH condition While the vessel was In San Francisco last year the talK of defective boilers again arose but no steps were taken to remedy them Other Lost Warships The destruction of the gunboat Den illusion In San Diego hnrhor was an appalling disaster But It does not Justify the Intimation that warships arc more liable to accidents than other labels The very opposite is true as the vessels of the American navy have been singularly free from such HARBOR OF SAN DIEGO A fir kyn 1 r3 b y v t n 9 ro vd 7 rr wra Mfr r fr V disasters as aro common among passenger pas-senger and merchant vessels Tho story of shipwreck nnd disaster disas-ter to tho American navy is a short ono Tho Fulton our first steam war vessel was destroyed by an explosion of tho magazine and twentysix lives were lost Tho brig Somers was sunk by 11 squall Dec 9 184fi and fortyono lies wore lost The sloop of war Huron was wrecked on the coast of North Carolina Nov il 1877 nnd 100 lives were lost On the evening of Jan 24 1870 the Oneida steaming out of the harbor of Yokohama Japan homeward bound after n three years cruise was rundown run-down by the British passenger steamer steam-er Bombay and sank In fifteen minutes min-utes Twentytwo officers and ninety five men were lost March 1G 1889 the Trenton and Vandalla were wrecked wreck-ed and the Nlpslg stranded In a storm at Apia Samoan Islands and fiftyone lives weio lost On Feb 2 1894 the Kenrburge was wrecked on Iloncadot reef hut no lives wcro lost Aside frrfm the vessels lost In the arctic sons this makes up our list ol naval disasters down to the time ol the destruction of the Maine In Havana Ha-vana harbor which was an act of war Other of our naval vessels had thrillIng thrill-Ing experiences in storms but without great loss of life For example while anchored of Frcdcrlcksted on the Island of St Croix Nov 18 ISO the Monongahela was lifted by an earthquake wave and carried over a number of warehouses and landed In one of the streets of the town A receding wave carried hot out of town and placed her on a coral reof but without serious damage and with only five of the crow lost The ship was afterward successfully launched from the reef The cruiser Do Solo was torn from WRECKED GUNBOAT BENNINGTON VfV r > Vtf U i > A > e N 1 a A + r G Ai i < + T Vb > 1 s ft4sW t I i tyil fe > V i M i A A > I t iTiFfj T < r t sfJ ° rv r < ViW a iw v i t i iii x r lfhi t > < v T I A i rPC > k e sag a iV jrFZgt 1 m p ri1 1Mti r I l i i i 9 I I r t n Ry r r r i t j JIti t c c t iiwya i I I FL SsS F ToSSi S8 s a P eSg SSSfe3BttJsfeyljS5 1t + ii iStyf tMA + Yt etrrt t i1 Y ts37rv i i a4kkY her moorings In tho harbor of St I Thomas about the some time and j I thrown upon the piles of a new wharf Tho receding sea carried her Intc deep water again with llttlo Injury In SOS an earthquake wave broke tho storeshlp Fredonla in pieces drowning twentyboven olllcers and men anti carried the steamer Wateree half a mile Inland The vessel was a total loss but only ono man was lost from tho Wateree This record of disaster In the American Ameri-can navy Is lost sight of when compared compar-ed with the disaster record in the Brit ish navy Six hundred lives were lost In tho disaster to tho Royal George 250 on the Amphlon 100 on the Nassau Nas-sau 291 on the Sceptre G73 on the Queen Charlotte 12G on the Invincible 250 on tho AJax thirty on the Mine blur 300 on the Snldnnhn 2000 u 10m tho St George and other warships were destroyed 3C5 on tho Sea Horse 200 on the Avenger 454 on the Bur ton leall 472 on the ironclad Captain 300 on tho Eurydlce 280 the jin At a Innta 107 on tho torpedo cruiser Ser pent 35S on the battleship Victoria bank by the Cnmpenlovvn and 400 on the Lady Nugent |