The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1898-02-18
STORY OF A SURVIVOR.


Lieutenant Blandin Tells of His ES-
cape From the Wrecked ship.
Key West, Fla, Feb. 1S.-Lieuten-
ant John j. Blandin, of Baltimore
one of the survivors of the Maine,
who is at the Key West hotel, gave
T. press correspondent last evening a
succinct account of the disaster, say
ing that not until now has he been
able to reColleCt the sequence of events.
in the'awful ten minutes following the
explosion Tuesday evening. Lieuten-
ant Blandin was on the Trenton at the
time of the terrible disaster off Sa-
moa, in 1889, when American and Ger
man vessels lost pa men all told. Lieu
tenant Blaudin y
Il was ON the watch, and when the
men had been piped below l looked
down the l.ain matches over the.
side Of the ship. Everything was alb
solutely normal. l walked aft to the
quarter deck behind the rear turret, as.
is allowed after s in the evening, and
sat down on the port side. where l re-
manned for a few minutes. Then, for
""n.' reason | cannot explain to my
self now, | moved to the starboard side
and sat down there. | was feeling a.
bit glum, and in fact was so quiet that
Lieutenant j. Hood came up and asked
l~aughingly if / was asleep. 1 said, No,
l am on watch
Scarcely had spoken when there
came a dull, sullen roar. The came a
sharp explosion, some say numerous
d%etonations. 1 remember only one. 1t
seemed to me hat the sound came
from the port side forward. Then came
a perfect rain of missiles of all de-
gCrintinnG from b1toa rianae 90 ~
ment to blocks of wood, steel ratings,
fragments of ~gratings and all the debris
that would be detachable in an explo-
sion.
Il was struck on the head by a piece
of cement and knocked down. but I
was not hurt, and got to my feet in a
moment. Lieutenant Hood had run to
the poop, and l supposed, as | followed,
he was dazed by the shock and about
to jump overheard. | hailed him, and
he answered that he had run to the
poop to help lower the boats. When |
got there, though scarcely a minute
could ave elapsed, l had to wade in
water to my knees, and almost in
stantly the quarter deck was awash.
ON the poop | found Captain Sigsbee,
as cool as if at a ball. and soon all the
officers except Jenkins and Merritt join
ed us. The poop wa, above water after
the Maine settled to the bottom. Cap
tain Sigsbee ordered the launch and gig
lowered, and the officers and men, who
by this time had assembled, got the
boats out, and rescued a number in the
water. Captain Sigsbee ordered Lieu
tenant Commander Wainwright for
ware to see the extent of the damage,
and If anything could be done to res
u those forward or to eXtinguish the
names, which followed close upon the
explosion and burned fercely as long
as there were any combustibles above
water to feed them.
Lieutenant Commander Wainwright,
on his return, reported the total and
awful character of the calamity, and
Captain Sigsbee gave the last sad order
abandon ship to men overwhelmed
with grief indeed, but calm and appar-
emily uneXcited.
Meantime four boats of the Spanish
cruiser Alfonso XII arrived, to be fol-
lowed soon by two from the Ward line
steamer City of Washington. The two
boats lowered first from the City of
Washington were found to be riddled
with flying debris from the Maine, and
unfit for use, CAPTAIN Sigsbee was the