How Glatton’s magazine fire exposed construction failures

Glatton was commissioned on 31 August 1918 and suffered the fatal fire and magazine explosion on 16 September. A six-inch magazine lay between the boiler and engine rooms, a protected central position that depended on careful thermal isolation. The design specified thick cork, wood planking, dedicated cooling, and a separate magazine casing. Examination of Gorgon later found chunks of cork missing, folded newspaper used as packing, and holes where rivets had not been fitted. Boiler-room draught could drive air and hot embers through those openings into flammable material beside cordite. The probable chain was a systems failure in which workmanship, unauthorized material substitution, ventilation, heat, and ammunition danger reinforced one another. The wreck remained an obstruction, turning a construction failure into a continuing navigation problem at Dover.