3-028-722 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Fatal accident at Fort St. George, Madras, 1870. 'A party of Royal Artillery, stationed at Fort St. George, Madras [present-day Chennai, India], were practising on Nov. 22 with 68-pounders, on the sea face of the fort, under the command of Colonel Hazlitt Irvine. On the sixth round being fired one of the guns burst, and a large portion near the breech was blown to a considerable height, and fell about twenty-five yards to the rear. The remaining part of the gun, with its carriage, fell to the right, killing, in its fall, George Chapman, a gunner, who had been discharged only the previous day from hospital, where he had been confined by injuries received at artillery practice. He was a fine young soldier, about twenty-five years of age, and had recently joined the battery, after a service of a few years at Tong-Hoo, in Burmah. A day or two before the firing the gun was examined and pronounced sound. It was a smooth bore of 95 cwt., and was cast in 1856. The charge used was the ordinary service charge - sixteen pounds of powder, and 68 lb. solid shot. Notwithstanding the bursting of the gun the shot fired nearly hit the floating target, which was a mile and a half out at sea'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.