San Pedro, CA Cruiser Tennessee Boiler Explosion, Jun 1908 - Four Killed

FOUR KILLED ON BOARD CRUISER

Boiler Tube on Tennessee of Pacific Fleet Breaks with Fatal Result.

TEN OTHERS ARE BADLY INJURED

Cruiser Was Steaming at Full Speed When Terrific Explosion Occurred.

Fragments of Iron Were Hurled About the Engine Room and It Was Filled with Scalding Steam---No Officers Among the Victims---Tennessee Is One of the Big New Armored Cruisers with 14,000 Tons Displacement.

San Pedro, Cal., June 5.---Four men were killed and 10 injured on board the armored cruiser Tennessee at sea today when a boiler tube broke, hurling fragments of iron about the engine room and filling it with scalding steam. The accident happened an hour after the cruiser left Santa Barbara on her was with six other vessels of the Pacific fleet to Los Angeles ports. The cruiser was steaming at full speed when the explosion occurred. The force of the explosion was terrible and many of the injured are fatally hurt it is believed. According to wireless dispatches no officers were injured. The damage to the ship is not known at this time, but it is likely that the boiler rooms of the ship have suffered seriously.

The seamen will not be landed until tomorrow morning, when they will be taken ashore at San Pedro and brought to the marine hospital at Los Angeles, where arrangements have already been made to receive them. The following is a list of the dead and injured, just received by the local wireless station.

Dead:

GEORGE WOOD, water tender.
EARL BOGGS, fireman, second class.
ADOLPH REINHOLD, machinist mate, second class.
GEORGE MEEK, fireman, first class.

Fatally injured:

S. Steamattis, first class fireman, Norfolk, Va.;
F. S. Maxfield, second class fireman, Toughkenamon, Pa., died from injuries two hours after accident.

Seriously injured:

E. K. Burns, coal passer, New York;
Walter S. Burns, coal passer, Brooklyn, N. Y.;
J. P. A. Carroll, second class fireman, Hartford, Conn.

Slightly injured:

D. W. Watson, fireman, second class, East St. Louis, Ill.;
R. F. Rutledge, coal passer, Athens, Pa.;
G. M. Corns, fireman, second class, Ironton, O.;
L. Hayes, water tender, Brooklyn, N. Y.;
H. F. Fitzpatrick, fireman, first class, Brooklyn, N. Y.

The cruiser Tennessee is the flagship of Rear Admiral Sebree, Captain Thos. B. Howard commanding, and is the flagship of the second division of the Pacific coast fleet. She is one of the new armored cruisers of 14,500 tons displacement, 22 knots and carried a compliment of about 900.

The Grand Forks Daily Herald, Grand Forks, ND 6 Jun 1908
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Transcribed by Linda Horton. Thank you, Linda!