The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-03-29
THE TIMES, WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, MARCH 80 1898

Il A RCH -, 1898.
bottom of the harbor and several feet of
water interviewed between it and the bot
| tom of the ship. think the tendency
| would be to lift the ship bodily
He was asked if the charge were sutti-
certly large and near enough to the bot
tom Of the ship, if the ship would not be
lifted Up ard also q hole blown in her
To which he replied in the affirmative.
In the case OF an explosion of a sub
marine mine, he was asked what became
of the mine and the case:
II have rarely seen any considerable
pieces of exploded mines; they are al
most always ruptured and lost. They are
blown up"
The judge advocate then asked; Look
ing at the plan Of the Names ten and
six inch magazines, if they had exploded
would it have torn out the ships sides
ard left that part forward so water
borne as to raise the afterpart of the
ship, drag it aft and bring the vertical
keel in the position you see it in the
J sketch?"
1T is difficult for me to realize that
! that effect could have been produced by
1 an explosion of the kind supposed.
He was then asked if it would be pos
sible to explode part of the powder in
magazine without exploding the whole
! and replied that such an explosion might
/ occur without exploding all the powder
/ in the separate tanks
/ Question: But If the explosion orig
mated on the inside of the magazine
/ without any water in it, would it not be
almost certain that all the powder in
/ that magazine would explode"
II think it would be much more GER
/ tain"
Gunner's Mate Smith.
! Gunner's Mate Thomas Smith, who went
! down into the wreck a number OF times,
was an important witness. He said that
he inspected the ten-inch shell room and
! found the shells lying there in good or
/ der. In this shell room the fore and ait
/ bukhead was blown from port to star
! board and toward the ten-inch magazine.
/ He found a ten-inch powder tank which
was sort of bent" but was not burst.
! 1t was full of powder and the bag and
! everything was in it. He testified that he
found plates that were blown from port
to starboard inboard. In this vicinity he
found six-inch shells lying with the noses
! of them pointing up and to starboard.
He found part of the six-inch reserve
magazine was gone altogether, complete
| ~ blown away and the ragged edges OF
/ the bottom of the shellroom steel were
| the wound and the upward force of the
| blow the gunner'S mate continued:
Lying right across the ten-inch shell
room there is an armored plate The end
of it that is sticking up is thinner than
the part that is down in the mud. The
reason l take this for an inner plate
| is that the plate has been torn right from
the ships side and turned completely
over, or that the thin sheets of steel
where the bolts pass through to bolt the
oak backing and the armor plate of the
ships side is right over, pointing to the
/ front The thick part of this plate is
down in the mud and the thin part of it
is sticking up" (The diver testified that
all that part of the ship-everything over
the six-inch reserve magazine and ten
inch shellroom was gone-absolutely
| blown away)
Seaman Martin Reden, who also did
some diving, testified that the first time
he went down was where the dynamo
! room was. There was nothing left of il
but some plates and beams. He could
not tell if there had been dynamo there
or anything else. Everything was gone.
He walked from outside the ship into
the ship, and could feel nothing else
there. He went from aft the superstruc-
ture and right down. and the mud goes
aft l couldn't say how far" He struck
one bottom plate down in the mud, and
the plate was bent in and up. This wit
ness was asleep in the after-turret, and
when asked what was the first thing he
knew about the explosion said:
THE first thing l knew / didn't see
nothing else but flames. and everything
came in the turret and the roar of the
water" This was an ungrammatical
but brief and graphic description of the
scene How he got out he didn't know.
He was well acquainted with the forward
compartments of the ship, but when he
went down after the explosion he said
there was nothing left there to recog-
nize.
A Divers Opinion.
Gunner's Mate Carl Rundguist, who
made several trips into the wreck, after
explaining what he had seen in connec-
ton with the plates. said: MY opinion
is, 1 believe that she was blown up from
the outside and in, because there was
no explosion from the inside that could
make a hole like that, from the way the
plates stood around in different direc-
tons There may have been an explo-
sion from the inside afterwards. but in
the first place there was an explosion
from the outside"
When asked by the court why he
thought so, the witness replied
Because l would never have found the
plates in the way I did This piece OF
| armOr-DIate ana the euSeS VI the iiOle
! would never have been found in that
way if the blow had not come from out
side
Lieut.. CntIin.
First Lieut.. A. w. Catlin, in command
of the marines, testified that when the
ship first went into the harbor there
were two extra sentinels put in, one on
the forecastIe and one on the poop, armed
with rifles They had special orders to
challenge all boats which approached the
ship near enough for challenge, and II
case any boat came towards the ship evil
IDENTIFY coming to the ship, to report i'm
mediately to the corporal of the guard
and to the officer of the deck. These sen,
tinels were on from O'Clock at night un.
til daylight. This officer was sitting II
his room reading when he heard a dull
? sound, loud conclusion and felt the
' shaking of the ship. The light went out
| instantly and as he came on deck he saw
the whole heavens full of sparks.
r Gunner Joseph Hill said there were NJ
high explosives stored in the magazine!
except those which should have beer
} stored there by the standing instruc
tons.
= Testimony of the Poop Guard.
The testimony of Private Edward Nc
Kay, of the Marine Corps. who was OF
watch on the poop at the time the eXplo