Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1915 — ANOTHER BRITISH SHIP TORPEDOED; BLAST KILLS 324 [ARTICLE]

ANOTHER BRITISH SHIP TORPEDOED; BLAST KILLS 324

Liner Princess Irene Blown to Atoms at Sheerness. DISASTER ON THE THAMES Cause of Explosion Is a Mystery— Turkish Submarine Sends H. M. S. Majestic to Bottom of Straits —Small Loss of Life. ; __ London, May British battleship Majestic was sunk by a torpedo in tho Dardanelles and tho British naval auxiliary Princess Irene was blown up at her pier in gheerness harbor, with a loss of 324 lives. The loss of life in the disaster to the Majestic is not known, but the admiralty announces that most of her officers and crew’ were saved. These two naval disasters, coming within twenty-four hours of the sinking of the battleship Triumph in the Dardanelles, have cast a gloom over London, both official and unofficial. Cause of Disaster a Mystery. Added to this is a deep air of mystery. The Rowing up of the Princess Irene, a former transatlantic liner taken over by the government from the Canadian Pacific railway, her owners, is seemingly beyond explanation. Rumors that it was the work of spies are heard on all sides. Taken in connection with the disaster to the battleship Bulwark, on November 26, with a loss of 750 men, which was similar in every respect afid which has never been explained, in spite of prolonged Investigation, ft has stunned naval officials.

Witness Tells of Blast Sheerness, May 28.—The Princess Irene was a Canadian PaAflc liner taken over by the admiralty. The cause of the explosion is a mystery. Probably It never will be know*n. The force of the explosion, which occurred at about 11:14 a. m , wfi»so terrific that windows were shattered and ceilings fell several miles away. An eye-witness says flames rose to a height of 300 feet, there being two pillars of flame with intervals of a few seconds betwen them, accompanied by dense clouds of white smoke, which hung like a pall for several minutes over the spot where tfce Princess Irene had "been moored. When it dispersed the liner was no more, and only pieces of floating debris remained. Assistance was immediately given. Bodies Picked Up in Marsh. Bodies were picked up in a marsh nearby. Gold stripes from the sleeves of a lieutenant's jacket had fallen On the body of a seaman.

Several men on board vessels moored in the river were injured by debris. Part of the boiler of the liner fell on a vessel half a mile away. Places ten miles to the southwest were covered with failing fragments, and there were some cases of personal injpry in the neighborhood of Sittingbourne. A wireless dispatch from Berlin •ays (pat the Majestic was sunk off SedelAtahr. The Majestic was a battleship of 14,900 tons displacement, and normally carried a crew of 757 men. She was built in 1895. Her length over all was 413 feet She was armed with four twelveinch guns, twelve six-inch, sixteen twelve-pounders and smaller guns. She also had four eighteen-inch tor pedo tubes submerged and one above water. British Submarine Makes Raid. The admiralty announces that in a raid on the' Sea of Marmora the British submarine El 1 sank a vessel with a great quantity of ammunition on board, chased and torpedoed a supply ship off Rodosto, ran another ship ashore and finally.-entered the waters of Constantinople and discharged a torpedo alongside the arsenal. : ■- ' ; General Bridges Dies. General bridges, in command of the Australian divisiod on the Gallipoli peninsula, was mortally wounded in an attack by the Turks against the Australian position on May 17, and has since died. This fact was made known here. Six Battleships Sunk. With the sinking of the Majestic six allied battleships have been accounted for by Turkish gunfire, mines or torpedoes in the Dardanelles. Of these losses the British have sustained five —the Majestic, Triumph Ocean, Irresistible and Goliath, and the French one, the Bouvet