The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-29

tnat point, as the platingS betWee-l
which he was wedged opened out so
that he had nothing to support him.
Mr.. Powelson said Olsen said that
about two hundred feet from the sluice
valve he found the opening in the ships
| side. He had found boarding near the
sea suction in apartment A10, about
| twenty-one feet from the sluice valve,
| in an almost vertical position, although
it was originally horizontal. Mr.. Pow
elson thought the explosion occurred
on the port side, whereapout frame is,
| center of impact The ship yielded at
II and also at Is, but it was pretty hard
| to say exactly where the impact came.
Frame Is was blown in.
| Powelson said that on February 23
Diver Smith went down to examine
the forward part of the keel as far for
ward to the bow as he could get. He
went down at the point D and walked
down on the green plating until he got
near the keel. He worked his way aft.
HE found" said Powelson, the fiat
part of the keel to be fourteen inches
wide and found that the outer keel
| plate Tapped up along the bottom plat
ing on each side distance of one foot
eight inches.
He then worked his way forward
until he came to the edge of plate A,
and then went down to the keel on the
bottom plating until he got into the
mud.
| On the afternoon Of March l Diver
Rundquist went down on the port side
of the ship abaft the port crane. He
| went down a ladder placed about five
feet abaft the port crane against the
port superstructure and leading down
to the main deck. Then he went over
the side at point about 12-inches
abaft the break in the main deck. He
found still attached to the side under
meath the waterways of the main deck
stripe of plating three or four feet
wide. The plating was said to be bent
| in board"
| On the afternoon of March l Run
| quist went down to examine the side
plating under the waterways, on the
port side abaft the port crane. Mr..
Powelson said; HE went back to the
ships side and examined the backing
of the armory. That looked to be push
| ed from out in, because at the place
where the plate was gone the wood
backing about six or seven inches thick
was splintered and all the splinters
pointing in board.
He examined the top of the wood
backing level with the armor plate.
The backing was split in a fore and aft
vertical plane and the inboard part of
! the backing was torn off. The outward
part of the backing was still attached
( to the plate. The splinters were on
the forward edge of the backing and
! pointed in board as he indicated in
| sketch. These splinters were about six
or seven inches long and pointed in
i board as he drew them at an angle of
about 45 degrees"
| Runquist found hole about frame Al
| where the splinters on the forward
| edge of the backing pointed outward.
! Mr.. Powelson sent Schister on the
| morning of the fifth to examine the
| plating on the portside bait the crane,
! Just under the main deck. The outside
| plating he found was bent sharply from
| the outside in making an acute angle
at the waterway.
| my idea" he replied, lis that after
the ship was raised UP at frame IS the
magazine, one or all of them after that
| were exploded. for some powder tanks
/ that have seen think were exploded
1 while others / have seen were not ex-
4 ploded. I saw coffee can that was
/ brought up this morning which was
| about as badly battered as most of the
/ powder cases that came up. 1t looks
in very much the same condition"
when you say some of the powder
tanks had, in your opinion, exploded,
| and some had not, do you refer to six
inch tanks only or two-inch tanks
| also?"
IT refer to both, as I have seen six
inch tank that was very little ripped
| open, and l saw one that had been
burst open and flattened out with evil
dences of burnt powder on it. I saw
one ten-inch tank that was scarcely
battered at all and only the head of it
gone / also saw ten-inch tanks with
/ the packing which looked liked excel
sior, unburnt, so that in my opinion
some but not all of the ten-inch and
| ix-inchi charges We're exploded"
Mr.. Powelson said four or five tanks
had been brought up that morning, but
| he did not see all of them. The only
one he remembered seeing was explod-
ed and burst out so that the case
formed almost plane surface. The
ten-inch tank had it's head removed,
but it had preserved it's appropriate
| shap.
When questioned further as to what
he regarded as the cause of the injury,
Mr.. Powelson said:
ION the bottom forward where that
frame was thrown up it would seem
to me the force was communicated
some distance through the water be-
cause it was lifted up instead of being
battered in. 1t was a force that was
cushioned in some way because the
diver tells me that there was a bulge
in plates between the two frames and
such as that would be a cushion press
ure. So the plates in that part of the
ship not having been broken in this
explosion may have occurred aft and
the frames forward of the transverse
armor being weaker than they are aft,
the ship might have been lifted up
there by this cushion pressure from
further aft"
"It struck me-" continued Mr.. Powell
son, speaking of the same part of the
| vessel, that the mine there could not
have been very close to those plates
tI,ot 1x-aro 1fftod SIT, haooyea