Such prosaic duties were not without the threat of accidents. On the evening of 2 May 1919—while Adrian was making a trip from the Naval Hospital at Portsmouth, Va., to the Naval Operating Base, Norfolk—she blew a tube in her boiler. When it burst, live coals and escaping steam severely burned a sailor of her "black gang." A Navy tug took Adrian in tow, and the injured man was soon taken ashore at Portsmouth for treatment. | Such prosaic duties were not without the threat of accidents. On the evening of 2 May 1919—while Adrian was making a trip from the Naval Hospital at Portsmouth, Va., to the Naval Operating Base, Norfolk—she blew a tube in her boiler. When it burst, live coals and escaping steam severely burned a sailor of her "black gang." A Navy tug took Adrian in tow, and the injured man was soon taken ashore at Portsmouth for treatment. |