Early in 1844, John Tyler was aboard the USS Princeton to view a demonstration of the on board Peacemaker gun's power. Following the presentation the gun was reloaded for an encore shot, except the barrel exploded. Several people were killed in the blast, including Tyler's Secretaries of State and the Navy but Tyler himself was safely below deck. What if Tyler had been caught in the blast? The precedent that the Vice President would take over the Presidency if the President died had been set by Tyler a few years early when Harrison had died in 1841. Tyler never got around to appointing a VP, so House Speaker John Jones would be next up according to our modern understanding of succession but those ideas were still forming in 1844. Would Jones have been able to seize the office for himself or would the Presidency fall to a power struggle? How does this change the annexation of Texas? Is Polk still able to become president? How does a young America respond to two president's in a row dying?