494 



NA TURE 



{March 26, 1SS5 



to the loss of the Doterel on April 26, 1881, while at anchor off 

 Sandy Point, by an explosion, or rather by two distinct explo- 

 sions following each other in very rapid succession, which 

 caused the death of eight officers and 135 men, there being only 

 twelve survivors of the crew. The inquiry by court-martial into 

 the catastrophe had led to the conclusion that the primary cause 

 of the destruction of that vessel was an explosion of gas in the 

 coal-bunkers, caused by disengagement of fire-damp from the 

 coal with which these were in part filled. Its distribution 

 through the air in the bunkers and in air-spaces adjoining the 

 ship's magazine was believed to have taken place to such an 

 extent as to produce a violently explosive mixture, and that this 

 had become accidentally inflamed, causing a destructive explo- 

 sion, which was followed within half a minute by the much 

 more violent explosion of the ship's magazine, containing four or 

 five tons of powder, to which the flame from the exploding 

 gas-mixture had penetrated. 



The circumstances elicited by the inquiry, coupled with the 

 information relating to explosions known to have occurred in 

 coal-laden ships which had been collected by a Royal Com- 

 mission in 1876 (of which the lecturer was a member), combined 

 to lend a considerable amount of probability to the view adopted 

 by the court-martial in explanation of an accident for which 

 there appeared to be no other reasonable mode of accounting. 



The conclusion arrived at led to the appointment of a com- 

 mittee under the presidency of Admiral Luard (of which Prof. 

 Warington Smyth and the lecturer were members) to inquire 

 into the probabilities of coal-gas being evolved, and of an ex- 

 plosive gas-mixture accumulating in consequence in the coal- 

 bunkers of ships of war, and into the possible extent and nature 

 of damage which might be inflicted upon ships of war by ex- 

 plosions due to the ignition of such accumulations. The com- 

 mittee were also instructed, in the event of their finding that 

 H. M.'s ships were liable to exposure to danger from such causes, 

 to consider and devise the means best suited for preventing 

 dangerous accumulations of gas in the coal-bunkers which are 

 distributed over the various parts of the ship in the different 

 classes of vessels composing the Royal Navy. 



The committee instituted a very careful inquiry, and a series 

 of experimental investigations, including the firing of explosive 

 gas-mixtures, in large wrought-iron tanks in the first instance, 

 ami afterwards in one of the large bunkers, empty of coal, in an 

 old m an-of-war, which afforded some comparison with the con- 

 dition, as regards the relative strength or powers of resistance of 

 the surroundings, and with the position, relatively to the ship's 

 magazine, of the particular bunker in the Dottrel in which 

 it was thought the explosion might have originated. The 

 results of these experiments could not be said to do more than 

 lend some amount of support to the belief that effects of the 

 nature of those ascribed to the first explosion in the Do'erel might 

 have been produced by the ignition of a powerfully explosive 

 gas-mixture, contained in the middle- or a thwart-ship's bunker 

 of the ship. The committee's experimental investigations for 

 ascertaining the best general method of securing the efficient 

 ventilation of the coal-bunkers in different classes of men-of-war 

 was, however, of considerable advantage in leading to the general 

 adoption of arrangements in H.M.'s ships whereby the possible 

 accumulation in the bunkers of gas which may be liable to be 

 occluded from coal after its introduction into them is effectually 

 prevented, and the occurrence of the kind of accidents guarded 

 against, of which there are several on record, due to the ignition 

 of explosive mixtures which have been produced in coal-bunkers. 

 Although the inquiry instituted by the court-martial in 

 August, 1SS1, into the loss of the Doterel was apparently very 

 exhaustive, some significant facts connected with the existence 

 of a [supply of xerotine siccative in the ship, which appear to 

 have had a direct bearing upon the occurrence of the disaster, 

 only came to light accidentally in January, iSS2. A caulker 

 formerly on the Doterel, but then employed in the Indus, recog- 

 nised, while some painting was being done in that ship, a 

 peculiar odour (as he called it, "the old smell ") which he had 

 noticed in the lower part of the Doterel the night before the 

 explosion ; on inquiry as to the material which gave rise to it, 

 he learned that it was due to some of the same material, xerotine 

 siccative, that had caused the explosion in the Triumph. Upon 

 this being communicated to the authorities, an official inquiry 

 was directed to be held, and it was then elicited that the very 

 offensive smell due to the crude petroleum spirit of which this 

 xerotine siccative mainly consisted, had been observed not only 

 by this man (who in his evidence before the court-martial had 



not alluded to the circumstance), but also by several others in 

 the Doterel, between decks, the night before the explosion ; that, 

 on the following day, a search was made for the cause of the 

 odour, and that ajar containing originally about a gallon of the 

 fluid, which was kept in a space at the bottom of the foremast, 

 together with heavy stores of various kinds, was found to have 

 been cracked, the principal portion of its contents having leaked 

 out into the bottom of the ship. The cracked jar was handed 

 up to the lower deck with the siccative still leaking from it, and 

 orders were given to throw it overboard on account of the bad 

 smell which it emitted ; this was done within a very few minutes 

 after the jar had been removed, and the first explosion occurred 

 almost directly afterwards. Instructions had been given to 

 clear up the leakage from the jar after the hatch of the mast-hole 

 had been left off a little time, and it appeared that a naked candle 

 had been given to the man who handed the jar up out of the 

 small store-lmld described by that name. There appears very 

 little room for doubt that an explosive mixture of the vapour and 

 air had not only been formed in the particular space where the 

 jar was kept, but that it had also extended through the aii spaces 

 at the bottom of the ship towards and underneath the powder- 

 magazine, so that even the air in the latter may have been in an 

 explosive condition, as many hours had elapsed between the 

 time when the smell of the petroleum spirit-vapour was first 

 noticed and when the first explosion occurred. 



The special committee which had inquired into the possibility 

 of the occurrence of a violent gas explosion in the coal-bunkers 

 of the Doterel was directed to institute experiments with a view 

 of ascertaining whether the vapour evolved by this xerotine 

 siccative would, in the circumstances indicated by the official 

 inquiry, have furnished an explosive gas-mixture possessing suffi- 

 cient power to have produced the effects resulting from the first 

 explosion on the Doterel, and to have exploded the powder- 

 magazine. A preliminary experiment showed that when a -mall 

 quantity of the liquid was spilled at one extremity of a [i 



channel 7 feet long and 2'5 inches by 3 inches insertion, the 

 vapour had diffused itself in the space of three minutes through- 

 out the channel to such an extent that, on a light being applied 

 at one end, the flame travelled along very rapidly to the other 

 end, igniting a heap of gunpowder which had been placed there. 

 Some of the liquid was also spilled upon the bottom of a very 

 large sheet-iron tank, and after this had remained closed for 

 about twenty-four hours, being exposed em all sides to the cool 

 air of an autumn night, and therefore not under condition! nearly 

 so favourable to evaporation as those obtaining in the hold of a 

 ship, the application of flame produced an explosion of such 

 violence as to tear open the tank. Experiments were also made 

 with the liquid in an old man-of-war, under conditions 

 similar to those which existed in the Doterel, and destructive 

 effects were obtained of a nature to warrant the conclusion that 

 the first explosion in the Doterel might have been due to the 

 ignition of an explosive mixture of the air in the confined space 

 at the bottom of the ship, with spirit vapour furnished by the 

 liquid which had leaked out of the jar. 



It is very instructive, as indicating the manner in which volatile 

 liquids of this class may, if their nature be unsuspected, be the 

 causes of grave disasters, to note that, while stringent re; 

 apply, and are strictly enforced, in our men-of-war in connection 

 with the storage and treatment of explosives and inflammable 

 bodies carried in the ship, the introduction into the service of 

 this highly volatile liquid, and its supply to ships in small 

 quantities, was speedily followed by two most calamitous acci- 

 dents 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 prepara- 

 tion having, in a reprehensible manner which cannot but be 

 stigmatised as criminal, withheld the information which most 

 probably 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 any explosion, the 

 accident which in December, 1875, caused the loss, by fire, oi 

 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 inat- 

 tention 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 



