Show SIXTY LIVES LOST BY THE EXPLOSION OF BOILERS OF GUNBOAT bennington they buried the gunboat benning ton s dead at san diego sunday for ty seven of them ln cammon grave in the little military burying ground on the promontory pt point loma all about them lie those who died in the nation s aa more trying times gravestones yellow with age bear of men who died at monterey in the mexican war others who gava up their life in the conquest of california who followed commo commander young dore stockton at old sau pasqual or who wore the blue in the civil war army and navy paid their last tab utes no less sincere than the grief of the representatives of peace from fort rosecrans came the corn pany coast artillery from the city of san diego the naval reserves from the universal brotherhood s home on point loma a company of khaki clad representatives and from the govern ment ship fortune a dozen sailors but the most impressive body of mourners was the fifty two men from the battered bennington beside these there were hundreds of civilians who brought their offerings of flowers to lay upon the graves besides those buried at san diego there are eleven more bodies in the morgues awaiting shipment to rela lives and there are two bodies still in the of the bennington making the total sixty there are forty nine wounded at various hospit als and there are sixteen missing making the aggregate of victims of the injured at hospitals seven or eight are expected to die accident seen from shore broken and blackened with her flag flying at half mast her hold filled with fifteen feet of water the united states gunboat bennington lies beached on the shores of san diego harbor sixty of her crew lay dead at city morgues the fate of a dozen more is 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 crew of officers and men at 10 10 clock on the morning of july 21 the bennington at the time of the accident was lying in the stream just off the commercial wharf at the toot of H street the warship had received orders from the navy department at washington to sail for port hartford where she was to meet the monitor wyoming and convoy the vessel to mare island navy yard steam was up and everything was in readiness tor balling when suddenly and without any warning whatever the starboard for ward boiler exploded with a deafening roar the explosion was terrific people standing on the shore saw a huge cloud of white steam rise above the bennington columns of water were hurled into the air and tor a distance of nearly twice the height of the spars of the vessel at the time of the accident corn mander lucien young and surgeon F E peck were on shore the two officers as soon a they learned of the disaster hurried the water front where commander young immediately took charge on board the bennington were pre dented terrible scenes the force of the explosion had torn a great hole in the starboard side of the ship and the vessel was already commencing to list A section of the upper deck was arrles away from stem to stern blood and wreckage were ed over the entire ship the after cabin aad the vicinity of the ship ad jacent to the exploded boiler lesem bling a charnel house over it all hung the great cloud of white smoke which drifted slowly toward the coro nada shore commander lucien young said As to the cause of the explosion I 1 canno say anything because I 1 do cot know what I 1 do know is that the damage was caused by an exploding bo ler or boilers the crown sheet of bo ler collapsed and the boiler head blew out breaking through the steel bulkhead separating it from boiler D the other main port boiler immediately aft boiler D was forced back the crown sheet collapsing and breaking down the steel bulkhead separating it from the every one in the fire room at the time was killed three bodies are now pinioned down by the collapsed coll aped crown sheet of boiler D and four more by the burst bulkhead these bodies we are now trying to release one of the bodies is wedged in such shape that it may be feces 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 feared for a long time that just such an accident would happen one of the men said that a year ago last febra ary while the ship was at magdalena bay the engineer of the cruiser new york was sent for to inspect the boll ers and he reported that they were in good 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 ben hington in san diego harbor was an appalling disaster but it does not justify the intimation that warships are more liable to accidents than other vessels the very opposite is true as the vessels of the american navy have been singularly free from such HARBOR OF SAN DIEGO disasters as are common among pas and merchant vessels the story of shipwreck and dasas ter to the american navy is a short one the fulton our first steam war vessel was destroyed by an explosion of the magazine and twenty six were lost the brig somers was sunk by a squall dec 9 1846 and forta one lives were lost the sloop of war huron was wrecked on the coast of north carolina nov 4 1877 and lives were lost on the evening ot jan 24 1870 tho onelda steaming out of the harbor yokohama japan homeward bound after a three years cruise was run do by the british passenger steam er bombay and sank in fifteen min utes twenty two officers ard ninety five ir en were lost march 15 1889 the trenton and vandalia were wreck ed and the lipsic stranded in a storm at apia samoan islands and fifty one lives were lost on leb 2 1894 the kearsarge was wrecked on roncador Ronca dol reel but no lives were lost aside from the vessels lost in tha arctic seas this makes up our list ol 01 naval disasters down to the time ot the destruction of the maine in ha ana gaibor which was an act of war other of our naval vessels had thrill ing experiences in storms but without great loss of life for example while anchored kofl Frederick sted on the island of st croix nov 18 1867 the monongahela was lifted by an earthquake wave ana carried over a number ot warehouse and landed of the streets of taij town A receding wave carried he out of town and placed her on a coral reef but without serious damage ani with only five of the crew lost the ship was afterward successfully launched from the reef the cruiser de soto was torn from her moorings in the harbor of st thomas about the some time and thrown upon the piles 0 a new wharf the receding sea carried her inta deep water again with little injury in 1868 an earthquake wave broke the fredonia in pieces drowning twenty seven officers and men and carried the steamer wateree half a mile inland the vessel was a total loss but only one man was lost from the wateree this record of disaster in the ameri can navy is lost sight of when combar ed with the disaster record in the brit ish navy six hundred lives were lost in the disaster to the royal george on the amphion on the nas sau on the sceptre on the queen charlotte on the invincible on the ajax thirty on the minotaur on the saldanha 2 when the st george and other warships were destroyed on the sea horse on the avenger on the bur towhead on the ironclad captain on the eurydice on the ata lanta on the torpedo cruiser ser pent on the battleship victoria sunk by the camperdown Camper down and on the lady nugent |