November 25, 1914: The HMS Bulwark Explosion

November 25, 1914: The HMS Bulwark, a British battleship, is destroyed in an onboard explosion off the coast of Sheerness, Kent, England. A total of 741 deaths are attributed to the blast, and only 12 men are said to have survived.

Bulwark was 1 of 5 London-class battleships built for the Royal Navy at the close of the 19th Century. Completed in 1902, she became the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet. She served in the Channel Fleet starting in 1907, and, after that Fleet's dissolution in 1910, in reserve in the Home Fleet. With World War I starting in August 1914, the Channel Fleet was revived, and Bulwark was assigned to it.

The explosion was determined to have been caused by the overheating of cordite charges, placed near a boiler-room bulkhead. An investigation 3 days later ruled out an external cause, such as sabotage or a German torpedo or mine.

Unlike with the USS Maine 16 years earlier, there were no wild conspiracy theories. Of course, with the Maine, the United States was not yet at war with Spain. With the Bulwark, Britain was already at war with Germany, and already living with the effects of anti-German propaganda. There was no reason for the government to lie, or to allow others to lie, about the cause of the explosion.

There were 3 previous British ships named HMS Bulwark. A light fleet carrier served under the name from 1948 to 1984, and the current ship with the name is an amphibious assault ship launched in 2001.

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November 25, 1914 was a Wednesday. In America, baseball icon Joe DiMaggio was born. But there was only 1 score on this historic day, the day before the American holiday of Thanksgiving, and it was in college football: Washburn beat Kansas State, 26-16 at Ahearn Field in Manhattan, Kansas.

The home team, then named Kansas State Agricultural College, became the Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science in 1931, and Kansas State University in 1959. Their teams were known as the Aggies until 1920, when they became the Wildcats. Washburn University, based in Topeka, Kansas, downgraded their football program in 1930, and now play in NCAA Division II.