The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-03-29

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big magazine swab that was not burnt.
| He said the lead in the keel where II
goes to the horizontal again forms 4 sort
| of with the two angle irons that are
| bolted to the vertical keel, and also
bolted to the skim of the double bottom,
| which is broken rieat in the corner
| where it forms the FVs
| He said that he had found a hole in
! the mud by the bow He found the hole
by following he forward part of the wing
| that forms the V! down until he came to
the mud He took a couple of steps aft
| and felt the vertical keel again, and fol
| lowed it down until he came 10 the mud,
! then he found himself standing Up
| straight that he could stretch out his
arms and feel the mud all around. He
| should judge the hole was seven feet
| deep and about as wide as deep. The mud
at the bottom of this hole was harder
than the other mud.
Smith said he found tin in this hole
which he should judge to be about
| twenty inches long and ten inches square.
1t looked like a can made up in square,
and twenty inches long. There was a
place where big square hole had been
made with gasket
On the next day he went down again
and found a bulkhead that seemed to be
between two boilers. He also found two
ten-tnch shells, and Il six inch powder
tank. He said that if the keel We're ho-i-
| zontal the inner bottom would bulge up.
Naval Constructor j. Il. Hoover was
next called and gave a technical descrip-
ton of the wreck above water from ex-
aminations made by him. He found that
the lower portion of the ship near the
keel. at frame II, was thrown W and
| abaft the same portion of the ship at
| higher deck. The bottom of the ship as
IT now stands, has been turned nearly
ninety degrees, revolved nearly ninety
degrees. The protective deck has been
revolVed about the same, the berth deck
a little more than the others and twisted
more. The forward part of the six inch
magazine is just below the three pieces
of deck as they originally were.
'FBilI" Anthony's Experiencc
Private William ("BnPO Anthony, who
was Capt. Sigsbee's orderly and was on
watch at the time of the explosion,
swore:
THE keys of the magazine were not
taken out of Capt. Sigsbee's cabin on
the day of the explosion and that night
l made a report to the captain that the
magazines were all right. When the ex-
ploson came | was standing on the
main deck, just outside the door, on the
starboard side. ! first noticed a trem-
bling and buckling of the decks and
then this prolonged roar-not a short re-
port, out a prolonged roar dc moor
ings were spread, and where the wing
awning and the quarterback awning
should join, there was a space of at
least eighteen inches. ] looked out and
saw an immense shoot of flame, and
then I started to warn the captain"
When asked if there was any percepti-
BILE dip to the ship at the first shock,
he said: AT the first shock the ship
instantly - that is the quarterback,
where | was standing-dpped forward
and to port. 1t apparently broke in the
middle and swayed forward and then
canted over to port, and continued set
Ting more to port while 1 was on board"
The upshoot of fame, Anthony said,
was all forward, forward of the super
structure. He saw the debris going up
with it. He could not distinguish what
it was, but saw firebrands going up
All this looked to be more on the port
side that it did on the midship line but
looked as if it covered the whole ship
1T was" he said, IAN immense glare
that illumined the whole heavens for
the moment. as much as 1 could see for
the awnings -
Chief Engineer Howell.
Chief Engineer HoweI's evidence was
important. He said IN part:
"On the starboard side of the Maine,
adjacent to the ten-inch magazine. were
coal bunkers Alb, BIS, and BIS On the
port side, adjacent to the SIX inch reserve
magazine were coal bunkers A-16, B-4 and
BE-
Alb was bunker which ii is difficult
to put coal in or take coal out of; besides
it has to come through B-4 and B-5. To
take coal out of Alb B-3 and B-5 have to
be emptied. and to put coal in Ais you
have to partially fill b. and then fill from
B-5 into Alb Those forward bunkers
have always been emptied as frequently
as possible in order to tighten the ship
, forward. 1t was the same way on the
port side. l have never seen on the
Maine any signs of spontaneous combus-
ton in the coal bunkers. I have never
seen, even after the most careful inspec-
ton, any sign of bunker heating. B-3
BIS, B-4 and BE- were empty for ten days
or two weeks before the explosion. Ais
was half empty till the day Of the explo-
} sion. On that day we began to take coal
from it to keep the ship on even trim.
They were never heated. / inspected
them several times a day. There could
| have been no spontaneous combustion in
t | any of the forward coal bunkers without
! it's having been noticed. Only the two
2 after boilers We're in use at the time of
! the explosion and they only had about
| eighty pounds of steam up for auxiliary
purposes. 1t would have been next to
t impossible for my boilers to have explod-
( ed with the steam they were carrying
and had they done so the damage would
: have been comparatively slight"
| Engineer HowelTs testimony all went
d to prove that the explosion was from the
= outside and that the ship Immediately
g listed to port after the mine exploded
= Thinks Ii Was Mine.
y On the second day Lieut.. C. NJ. F. Hol
4 man testified as follows:
{ "On the night of the explosion I was
o conversing with Mr.. Jungen and Mr.
t Jenkins. A heavy explosion forward oc
e CURED. 1t shook the ship violently, ant
L the noise il made consisted of a low
grumbling, comparatively speaking a low
{ and heavy grumblng, followed by
y heavy booming explosion.
= 1T was precisely similar to many Other
submarine explosions / have heard ex
: cept that il was a much larger scale
submarine explosion always gives tive
. shOcks-one transmitted by the water
{ the other Immediately following-the at
:, mospheric shock.
u MY first impression was that we haC
u been attacked. l called to the rest:
{ We have been torpedoed. Get up OF
d deck
= up by a heavy mine under her bottom"
4 Commander Converse Testifies.
st Commander G.. A. Converse, U. S. n.
Il was summoned as an expert witness ant
- requested to explain the character of ex
n plosives in submarine mines, also thu
j. quantity used. In answer to which h
stated that 300 pounds was the larges