240 Mr. F. J. Bramivell [June 13, 



I say beyond all question, because the charge was subsequently 

 " wormed" out of the gun, and the torn cartridge, with its 110 lbs. of 

 powder, was thrown overboard. The Committee say, and I, the 

 assessor to that Committee, say that there was a similar misfire as 

 regards the left-hand gun of the fore turret, the one which afterwards 

 burst. Following the electric broadside, the order was given for 

 independent firing, that is to say, each gun was to be fired by itself, 

 and the firing was to take place while the turrets were revolving. 

 The charge was to be the " full charge " of 85 lbs. pebble powder, 

 and an empty common shell. This was inserted into the left gun 

 of the fore turret. The gun was raised and run out to its firing 

 position, was fired, and burst, with the disastrous results we all 

 but too well know ; and I now, at this late period, come to the real 

 object of my lecture, the consideration of what it was that caused the 

 explosion. 



I should like to deal with this subject in the manner in which the 

 Committee have dealt with it ; that is, I should like to review and 

 dispose of all the suggestions which have been put forward other than 

 the true one before considering that true one itself, but I must not be 

 tempted into following this course, as I well know if I do the clock 

 will sound the end of the hour allotted for this lecture before I have 

 reached the true cause. 



I will refer you to Diagram 14, which shows the external appear- 

 ance presented by the ruins of the gun when brought together, and to 

 Diagram 15, which represents the interior of the splinters of the steel 

 tube that have been found, when also laid side by side in their proper 

 juxtapositions. This last diagram, you will see, is like the diagrams 

 of the rifling, a " development," that is to say, as I explained to you 

 in speaking of those diagrams, it gives a representation of that which 

 would appear if a picture made on a paper tube were, by the cutting 

 open of the tube from end to end, to be laid out flat. 



I will ask your particular attention to splinters 1, 2, and 3, and 

 to their left-hand ends, which represent the ends where they joined 

 the piece of steel tube remaining in the breech coil : you will see a 

 shaded mark upon each of them at the left-hand end, which was 

 caused by an abrasion extending here across the sj^linters, and made 

 at an angle to the surface of the tube. 



Diagram 16 shows a longitudinal section through splinter 1, and 

 through splinter 13, which is one of the splinters forward of 1, and it 

 shows them in the position and under circumstances which account 

 for the abrasions on the left-hand ends of 1, 2, and 3, and for similar 

 but reverse abrasions on the front piece 13. 



An inspection of the remains shows clearly that the centre of the 

 explosion was- at the point A, the former point of union between 

 splinter 1 and the pieces which were in continuation rearward of 

 splinter 13. With A as the centre of the explosion, the effect would 

 have been as shown, to bulge the gun out at that part, and thus 

 to break away the left-hand end of splinter 1 from the part of the 



