MISSOURI TURRET FIRE

The first years of the 20^th century were heady times.  The Wright brothers had achieved the first heavier-than-air flight only months before this date.  Theodore Roosevelt was President, and from a naval perspective, our nation was emerging onto the world scene as a power with whom to be reckoned.  Our then launching fleet of armored cruisers and Maine-class battleships was the equal of contemporary navies.  Indeed, our latest, the battleship USS MISSOURI (BB-11) had been commissioned only months before, on 1 December 1903, the third warship to honor our 24^th State.  CAPT William S. Cowles completed sea trials off the Virginia Capes in February, then joined our Atlantic Fleet.  His first assignment was in support of training in the Caribbean.

Wednesday, April 13^th, MISSOURI was engaged in target practice.  Her 12-inch guns boomed with authority as gunners honed their skills.  A crew of 40+ sailors served the twin barrels of her after turret and labored in the munitions handling room one deck below.  Suddenly this morning, as the breech of the port barrel was opened to reload, hot gasses “flared back.”  The turret immediately flashed-over, igniting powder charges awaiting the next rounds!  Flames filled the space.  Chief Warrant Gunner Robert E. Cox remained at his post to direct firefighting, while from outside the turret, Chief Gunners Mate Mons Monssen dove through the hatch with a bucket and began slinging water with his hands to douse the flames.  The turret filled with the cacophonous screams of men painfully burned; others fell unconscious.  In only moments the fires spread to the munitions handling space below.  It looked like the powder magazine would be next–a consequence that would doom the new battleship!  GM1c Charles S. Schepke in the handling space below escaped the initial flash to man a hose outside the magazine. 

Under the direction of CWO Cox, the crew of the turret soon gained the upper hand.  Hoses shortly brought more water, wetting down unburned powder and smothering the flames.  But not before 36 sailors in the spaces had been burned beyond saving.  When the fires were ultimately quenched many more had excruciating injuries.

The actions of the turret crew saved MISSOURI from disaster.  Monssen, Cox, and Schepke were all among the survivors.  Indeed, both GMC Monssen and GM1c Schepke received the Medal of Honor and were warranted to Gunner.  At the time officers were not eligible for the Medal, but when they became so in later years, CWO Cox was retroactively honored as well.  Our WWII destroyers USS MONSSEN (DD-436) and (DD-798) remember Norwegian-born Chief Warrant Gunner Monssen.  The disaster prompted changes to the construction of gun turrets and improvements in munitions handling that remain in effect today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  17 APR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 391-92, 421.

United States Congress.  United States of America’s Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients and their Official Citations.  Columbia Heights, MN: Highland House II, 1994, pp. 564-65, 567, 568.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Monssen’s namesake, the Gleaves-class destroyer USS MONSSEN (DD-436), steamed into the Pacific after the Pearl Harbor attack and fought in the Coral Sea.  At the naval battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942 she was hit 37 times, being reduced to a burning hulk.  Still ablaze the following dawn, BM2c L.F. Sturgeon and GM2c J.G. Hughes climbed back aboard to rescue nine more shipmates still trapped in the inferno.  Like many warships lost to combat, DD-436 was replaced later in the war with MONSSEN (DD-798).

Officers became eligible for the MOH on 3 March 1915, and many retroactive officer awards were granted in the years that followed.

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