San Pedro, California
Tennessee Cruiser Ship Explosion
June
6, 1908
A DISASTER ON THE
TENNESSEE
Boiler Tube Blows Out,
Mangling Fourteen.
SIX ARE DEAR, SIX BADLY
HURT
Every Person in the
Fire-Room Is a Victim.
The Accident Occurs
While the Tennessee Is Steaming at Nineteen
Knots on a Speed Trial Off the California Coast
– Warship Is Not in Any Way Damaged Outside the
Fire-Rooms – Story of Disaster.
Los Angeles, Calif.,
June 6. – An official report says that two
of the men injured in yesterday’s boiler
explosion on the cruiser, Tennessee,
while making a test run at nineteen knots, died
today, bringing the death list up to six.
The cruiser, with its dead
and injured aboard, is anchored in San Pedro
bay. Captain Howard
and the officers today issued
statements praising the work of the surviving
occupants of the fire-room, where the explosion
occurred, who rescued their companions.
Rear Admiral Sebree, who had a narrow
escape from death, today declared the explosion
was one of the accidents that cannot be provided
against.
Sebree had just completed
an inspection of the apartment where the
explosion occurred when the tube, four inches in
diameter and enclosed with water inside the
boiler, burst, under 235 pounds pressure,
sending a torrent of scalding steam, coal dust
and hot ashes through the ash-pit and showering
the naked men in the room.
The official list of the
dead and injured, as given out today by
Rear Admiral Sebree,
is as follows:
List of Dead.
GEORGE WOOD,
water tender, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
E. C. BOGGS,
fireman, Woodlawn, Alabama.
S. S. TEMATEE,
fireman, Norfolk, Virginia.
F. X. MAXFIELD,
fireman, Toughkena, Pennsylvania.
R. REINHOLD,
machinist, Germany.
G. A. MEEK,
fireman, Skidmore, Kansas.
List of Injured.
E. J. Brass,
coal passer, New York.
W. S. Burns,
coal passer, Brooklyn.
J. P. Carroll,
fireman, Hartford, Connecticut.
C. H. Carns,
fireman, Ironton, Ohio.
A. Hayes,
Brooklyn.
H. Fitzpatrick,
Brooklyn.
R. M. Watson,
fireman, East St. Louis.
R. R. Rutledge,
coal passer, Athens, Pennsylvania.
Story of Survivor.
H.
Fitzpatrick, one of the survivors,
today said the room was in perfect order when
the explosion occurred.
“All seemed well,”
Fitzpatrick said, “when suddenly the room was
transformed into a hell-hole. Showers of
cinders and scalding steam came down upon us and
six of the boys were blown violently against the
walls. Four of them were killed. Those of us
who lived through it rushed to the doors, threw
them open and dragged out the victims.”
From the lips of the burned
men come tales of deeds of heroism of their
comrades, who gave their lives that others might
escape.
Two of the men,
REINGOLD,
machinist’s mate, and
GEORGE W. MEEK, fireman, died at
their posts.
It was evident that through
the scalding steam the men would have been able
to get out, but the remained behind trying to
shut off the escape of the fiery vapors and were
literally cooked to death.
Given Much Praise.
BOGGS and
WOOD, the two men who lived until
within site of the harbor of San Pedro, also
were given much praise. The two men were in
separate compartment and could not get to the
stairway in time to descend to the deck above.
They shouted, it is reported, to their comrades
to save themselves and that they would get out
the best way they could. They finally reached
the deck with strips of flesh falling from their
burned bodies.
Early Story of Disaster.
San Pedro, Cal., June 6.
– Four men were killed outright and 10
others were shockingly injured when a steam pipe
in the starboard engine room of the armored
cruiser Tennessee blew out without
warning. The disaster occurred while the
warship was steaming at 19 knots on a speed
trial, off Point Puenene, Cal.
There were 14 men in the
fire room when the tube, which is four inches in
diameter and enclosed with water inside the
boiler, blew out, driving a torrent of scalding
steam, coal dust, cinders and hot ashes through
the asphalt, and showered the half-naked men.
Rear Admiral Sebree himself escaped
death or serious injury in the fatal firepit by
the mere moment’s time. He had left the room
where the explosion occurred not 50 seconds
before the fatal blast. An official
investigation of the accident has been ordered.
The boiler was of the standard kind the Babcock
& Wilcox make, used on many of the warships. It
consists of a large cluster of four-inch tubes
carrying water into the main boiler. Only one
tube, and this one of the bottom tier,
exploded. The break was less that six inches in
length. There was no wreckage, but the
explosion was described by the survivors as
frightful.
The dead:
GEORGE WOOK,
water tender, Scranton, Pa.;
E. C. Boggs, second-class fireman,
Woodlawn, Ala.; A.
REINGOLD, machinist’s mate, second
class, Germany; GEORGE
MEEK, first-class fireman, Norfolk,
Va.; W. S. MAXFIELD,
second-class fireman, Toughkena,
Chester county, Pa., were pronounced fatally
injured. Seriously injured:
E. J. Burns,
coal passer, New York;
Walter S. Burns, coal passer,
Brooklyn, N. Y.; J. P.
A. Carroll, second-class fireman,
Hartford, Conn.; G. M.
Corns, second-class fireman, Ironton,
O., is among the slightly injured.
A blast of white steam from
the ventilators told those on the deck of the
accident and Lieutenant
Commander S. S. Robinson, the
navigator, instantly sounded a general alarm and
dropped 20 lines of hose ready for use in case
of fire. Within the doomed fire room, No. 3,
amidship, on the starboard side, which is one of
the 16 enclosed fire compartments, the surviving
seamen were fighting for life.
REINGOLD and
MEED were
stricken dead at their posts.
BOGGS AND
WOOD crawled or
were dragged into the adjoining fire room, No.
11, and died almost immediately. The surviving
seamen, all of whom received some injuries,
acted with the greatest heroism in aiding their
unfortunate mates.
The Marion Daily
Star, Marion, OH June 1908
Transcribed by
Jenni Lanham. Thank you,
Jenni!
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