230 Sir Frederick Abel [March 13, 



are strictly enforced in our men-of-war in connection with the 

 storage and treatment of explosives [|and inflammable bodies carried 

 in the shij), the introduction into the service of this highly vola- 

 tile liquid, and its supply to ships in small quantities, was 

 speedily followed by two most calamitous accidents because the 

 material was only known under the disguise of a name affording no 

 indication of its character. Its dangerous nature had consequently 

 escaped detection by the officials through whose hands it had passed, 

 the makers of the preparation having, in a reprehensible manner 

 which cannot but be stigmatised as criminal, withheld the information 

 which most j^robably would have, at the outset, acted as a prohibition 

 to the adoption of this material by the Admiralty for use in ships, 

 or which would, at any rate, have led to the adoption of very special 

 precautions in dealing with this material. 



Although not initiated, nor attended, by an exjDlosion, the accident 

 which in December 1875 caused the loss, by fire, of the training-ship 

 Goliath off Grays (near Gravesend) and the death of several of the 

 boys by drowning, claims notice as an illustration of the facility with 

 which, by heedlessness, or inattention to obvious precautions, accidents 

 may be brought about in the use as an illuminating agent of mineral 

 oil or petroleum, even where these are of such low volatility, or high 

 " flashing point," as to entitle them to be considered as safe, under 

 all ordinary conditions, as vegetable or animal oils. The evidence 

 elicited at the coroner's inquest showed that one of the boys of the 

 Goliath, whose duty it was, at the time, to trim the lamps used in the 

 ship, to place them in position and remove and extinguish them in 

 the morning, and to whom this work had been but recently allotted, 

 let fall a lamp which, after having lowered the flame, he had carried 

 from its assigned position into the lamp- or trimming-room, and which 

 he could hold no longer on account of its heated state. The heated 

 oil was scattered upon the floor and was aj^parently at once 

 inflamed by the burning wick of the lamp ; the floor of the room 

 was, it ai^pears, much im23regnated with oil which had been let drop 

 from time to time by lads employed upon the work of lamp trim- 

 ming ; hence the flame attacked the apartment generally with con- 

 siderable rapidity, and a wind blowing at the time caused the fire to 

 spread through the vessel so very quickly as to compel many of 

 those composing the crew to jump overboard, and to render the 

 rescue of the boys from burning or drowning a difficult matter. The 

 occurrence of this accident was made the occasion, in some of the 

 public papers, to decry petroleum oil as a dangerous illuminating 

 agent, although it was proved that the particular oil used at the time 

 when the fire occurred had so unusually high a flashing point that the 

 consequent inferiority of its burning quality had been made the 

 subject of complaint. This low volatility of the oil has been 

 occasionally regarded as one very important element of safety in 

 reference to its employment in lamps, but the lecturer wdll pre- 

 sently have to refer to circumstances which do not altogether sub- 



