Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1903 — WARSHIP RAMS DESTROYER. [ARTICLE]

WARSHIP RAMS DESTROYER.

Fifteen Lives Are Lost in Naval Maneuvers Off Corfu. The torpedo-boat destroyer Orwell was run down by the British cruiser Pioneer during the naval maneuvers off Corfu, and fifteen men went down with her. The crash was terrific. The Pioneer was steaming nt full speed under forced draught when the torpedo-boat deslroye-, also nt her extreme speed, ran across her bows. Three seconds either way would have averted the collision, but as it was the armored cruiser struck the Orwell fair broadside, cutting her completely in half, the forward half of the vessel sinking like n stone almost without a swirl on the water. The after por tion of the destroyer was kept afloat by one of the water-tight compartments being uninjured nnd was towed into port. The accident happened nt night nnd it is thought thnt owing to tiie fniut haze prevailing the lights of the cruiser nppenred more distant to the enptnin ->f the destroyer than was the cane. The blame for the accident to not known, though ft appears that the captain of the Orwoll took long chances In leaving so narrow a margin in crossing the bows of the crulfer, knowing her ta b* under full speed. Dr. Albert J. Atkins of the California Medical College says that It Is electricity, not oxygen, that purifies the blood.