The Portland daily press., 1898-02-21
BIooIner.

The writer Of the above letter was John
Fl. Bloomer of East Deering, a seaman on
the battleshihp Maine, which was blown
I'D in the harbor of Havana, Tuesday
night, February 10Th. The young man
now lies in the hospital at Key West suf-
ffering from the injuries he sustained in
the explosion which destroyed thesshipand
the surgeons report that he issrapidly
recovering from his wounds. The letter
was written to.his mother, Mrs. Trip of
East Deering, and was dated January
both. 1t shows that Bloomer, together
with the other seamen on the Maine were
suspicious of the Spaniards and feared
for their safety. Bloomer goes so far as
to intimate that it was feared that the
ship might be blown up. Undoubtedly
the Names crew believe that the explo-
sion was the resultssof some threachery on
the part of The Spaniards, and that feel
ing is entertained by many people, though
the officers of the Maine, the high offic-
ials Of the navy department and many
others, whose opinions are entitled to re-
spect, attribute the explosion to some in
terror accident.
Young Bloomer wrote another letter
to U. H. Osborn of Deering, dated Ha-
vana, a short time previous to the above
letter which was written to the young
sailors mother. This letter tells about
life on the Maine and goes on to say:
"The Cubans are more than using up
the Spaniards Some of them stole over
100 horses from the Spaniards right near
the city of Havana. They came right
up to the city, killed the guard the
Spanish had over the horses, took what
they wanted, killed the horses which
they did not want and flew for the coun-
try. That is the way they are doing
They will hide and when the Spaniards
come in sight they let them have 1t
and before they know what has hap
pened they have lots of them downed.
The Spaniards caught two men and two
women few nights ago trying to blow
up the city gas house so that they could
have the city in darkness. But these
Cubans did not succeed in their plans.
They were sshoty before they could blow
up the gas house.
1.-THE Cubans sunk the dry dock in
the harbor with one OF the Spanish
men-o'-w war in it and she came near sink
ing with the dock. This man-o' war is
here yet. The Spaniards had the propeller
off and sne is still that way. She has
been here for year, but they say that
they are going to repair. her now for the
war.
"The Cubans sank the dry dock by
sending a diver out from the shore and
he bored holes in the bottom of the dock
and it filled up with water and sank.
The Spaniar6s might do the same thing
to us before we get out of here. They
saw we are going to leave Havana soon
and 90 to New Orleans, and hope we
will, None of the crew of the Maine are
allowed to 90 ashore for the officers are
afraid that some of us will get killed.
The Spanish women come out to the ship
in great numbers, but no men come with
them. The officers show the women all
over the ship, but none OF the sailors
have chance to talk with them. they
are pretty, though, and full of fun. y
Young Bloomer evidently heard these
stories about the doings of the Cubans
from the gossip Oh shipboard. The letter
shows that the men of the Maine were
little uneasy at some of the things they
ad heard while lying at : anchor in Ha
vana. The letter was written week or
more before the one written to Mrs. Trip.