The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-03-14
PERAL's BLUFF,
How an Expert Explodes the Spanish
Theory.

Havana, via Key West, March lat is
impossible to send direct from Havana
anything in REPUTATION of Captain Pe1al's
statements of yesterday regarding the
view of the Spanish court of inquiry that
the Maine disaster was due to m internal
explosion. However an American officer
who is an expert and whose words are
worthy of all weight, said today: i am
"a graduate of the torpedo school and have
studied the effects of torpedoes or mines
from observation and experiments. A
torpedo exploded at q depth of six feet
would throw a column of water 100 feet
into the air; at 10 feet deep, ten feet in
the air, and at 80 feet deep it would bare
Iy raise small wave. A defamation of
gun cotton in the open air makes mark
It's own size in steel or blows stone to
fragments. In the water, torpedo itself
would not be felt at any great distance.
1t requires the resistance of q solid body
and its force would be dissipated in water
or mud. This disposes of the wave theory
and the affecting of the shore or boats in
the harbor +"
AS to the hole in the Maine, the expert
in question makes the most Important
statement that the Maine drew 2S TO 80
feet at the time of the explosion and had
about ten feet of water below her bottom
to thu surface of the harbor mudan On
the port side, where the United States
divers are now at work there is at present
AZ feet of water. May not this be the hole
l iahN tot, tD
found. If it is, the hole was more than
seven feet deep when the explosion took
place and has been greatly filed with
mud since. AS to the finding of dead
fish, the United States court Of inquiry
has made a careful investigation. Not a
single diver has seen fish alive or dead
since he has been working on the wreck.
The bodies recovered from the Maine have
not been touched by fishes. Some of the
fishermen in Havana testified that there
were no fish inside the harbor, the waters
being too foul for them. Sometimes they
come part way in during tho day but all
go out at night. Further as to the dis
coveries of Spanish divers reported to
| Captain Peral, five American divers have
been working on the port side of the
wreck on an average of seven hours each
day for nearly three weeks in a space fifty
feet long and twenty feet wide. The
Spanish divers have never been inside the
wreck at all, neither have they. ever been
on the port side, devoting the hours
which they have spent under, water to the
| starboard side forward and outside the
hull. Recently. to their own surprise,
they brought up two cans Of ammunition
for the six inchsguns, not exploded They
dropped them back when the light of the
surface showed they were unexploded and
what their nature was. The Spanish
divers often only go down long enough to
wet their suits and then come up and
hide behind a blanket on the barge, where
| they sleep or rest for a couple of hours
and then go ashore and report that they
cannot see anything in the mud or water.
They could not have found the ram of the
Maine, since they have not been down in |
the locality of that part of the wreck. |
They have not located the turret with the |
ten inch guns, though the spot has been |
pointed out by Captain Sharp in charge |
Of the wreckers, where there is only six |
teen feet and should be twenty six feet. |
This SPOT is outside the hull on the star
board side 1t is probable that the tur-
ret is there partly buried in the mud.
All of these facts are known by the
United States court of inquiry, having
been elected in the examination of those
in a position to know.
The expert interviewed by the corre-
spondent expresses the belief that the
Maine was blown up by Newport torpe-
do or something of the same nature
This engine of destruction is the joint
product of the labors of Commander
Converse, commander of the Montgomery
and Lieutenant Commander Mclean, now |
in command OF the torpedo station at |
Newport and the ordnance officer of the |
Maine The Newport torpedo can be |
planted from small boat and the expert |
believes this one was exploded by being |
ward of amidships as she swung at her |
moorings. He thinks this more likely |
than that wires were laid from the shore |
as the wires if laid for any length of time |
would sink deep in the mud. 1t would |
be singular if it should prove that the |
Maine was blown up by torpedo in the
invention of which one of her principal |
officers bore q notable part.
All the above statements of fact and |
surmises come without reserve except as |
to the name and rank of the giver. The |
expert further thinks that the destroying |
mine was made of four torpetfoes of |
thirty.six pounds each of wet and dry gun |
cotton, or IA pounds in ALL This a1ifount |
was ample to blow the entire forward |
part of the Maine clear over to starboard |
as has undoubtedly been done. Il
In the Judgment OF the correspondent |
the United States court of inquiry is
aware of the views which the Spanish |
court will promulgate and has also |
made careful investigation along the |
same lines so as to be able either to refute
or confirm the Spanish statements. A
MT