Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-04-04
REPORT OF THE COURT
OF INQUIRY.

After full and mature consideration
of all the testimony before it, the
court finds as follows:
That the United States battleship Maine
arrived at the harbor of Havana, Cuba, on
the twenty-fifth day of January, eighteen
hundred andininety-eigh and>was taken
to buoy No. in from five and half to six
fathoms of water, by the regular govern
ment pilot
The United States consul general at
Havana had notified the authorities at
that place the previous evening Of the in
tended arrival of the Maine
The state of discipline on board the
Maine was excellent and all orders and
regulations in regard to the care and safe
ty of the ship were strictly carried out.
All ammunition was slowed in accord
ance with prescribed instructions, and
tion was handled.
Nothing was slowed in any one of the
magazines or shell rooms which was not
permitted to be slowed there.
The magazines and shell rooms were al
ways locked after having been opened and
after the destruction of the Maine the keys
were found in their proper place in the
captains cabin, everything having beea
reported secure that evening at p. m.
The temperature of the magazines and
shell rooms was taken daily and reported.
The only magazine which had undue
amount of heat was the after ten inch
magazine, and that did not explode at the
time the Maine was destroyed.
The torpedo war heads were all slowed
in the after part of the ship under the
ward room and neither caused nor par
ticipated in the destruction of the Maine.
The dry guncotton primers and det-
orators were slowed in the cabin aft, and
remote from the scene of the explosion.
Waste was carefully looked after on the
Maine to obviate danger. Special orders
in regard to this had been given by the
comma nding officer.
Varnish es, dryers, alcohol and other
combustibles of this nature were slowed
on or a above the main deck and could not
have had anything to do with the destruc-
tion of the Maine.
The medical stores were slowed aft un-
der the ward room and remote from the
scene of the explosion.
No dangerous stores of any kind were
slowed below in any of the other store
rooms.
The coal bunkers were inspected daily.
OF these bunkers adjacent to the forward
magazines and shell rooms, four were
empty.
One had been in use that day and on e
was full of New River coal. This coal had
been carefully inspected before receiving
it on board. The bunker in which it was
slowed was accessible on three sides at all
times and the fourth side at this time on
account of other bunkers being empty.
This bunker had been inspected that day
by the engineer officer on duty. The fire
alarms in the bunkers were in working |
order and there had never been case of
spontaneous combustion of coal on board |
the Maine.
The two after boilers of the ship were in
use at the time of the disaster, but for
auxiliary purposes only, with compare
lively low pressure of steam and being
tended by a reliable watch. These boilers
could not have caused the explosion of the
ship. The four forward boilers have since
been found by the divers and are in fair
condition.
On the night of the destruction of the
Maine everything had been reported secure
for the night at p. M, by reliable persons,
through the proper authorities to the COM
officer. At the time the Maine
was destroyed the ship was quiet and
therefore least liable to accident caused by
from those on board.
The destruction of the Maine occurred at
40 p. M, on the 18th day of February,
1898, in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, she
being at the time moored to the same
buoy to which she had been taken upon
Of distinctly different character, with
very short but distinct interval between
them and the forward part of the ship was
lifted to marked degree at the time of
5he first explosion. The first explosion
was more the nature of report like that
Of gun, while the second explosion was
u ore open, prolonged, and Of greater vol
lme. This second explosion was, in the
opinion of the court, caused by the partial
magazines OF the Maine.
Condition of the wreck-The evidence
oearing upon this, being principally OBJ
aimed from divers, did not bic the
ourt to form a definite conclusion as to
he condition of the wreck although it I
vas esta blished that the after part of the
hip was practically intact and sank in
hat condition a very few minutes after
he destruction of the forward part.
The following facts in regard to the for