The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-18
UNCoNFIRMED RuMORs.
Sample of Reports Current Yesterday
Concerning the Maine.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17-This was day
of rumors concerning the cause of the de-
struction of the battle ship Maine. Early
this morning the following was received
from Key West:
The correspondent here OF the Associated
Press has just returned to this place on
board the OIivette from the scene of the
wreck of the United States battle ship
Maine in Havana harbor. The divers Who
have been working about her bottom have
discovered an elght-inch percussion hole
in a plate. Admiral Manterola has sum-
moned Captain Sigsbee to appear before
Military Judge Peral to make the neces-
sary depositions. All proof of the torpedo
work will be removed. Another man-of-war
is expected here tonight.
The writer of the above was Mr.. Wealth
erford, the regular Associated Press corre-
spondent at Key West who went to Ha-
vana recently and who left the latter city
yesterday "wednesday at 3 D. m. on the
steamer Olivette, His dispatch was at once
shown to President Mckinley. whose only
comment was that it was the first he had
heard of it. The President did not wish
to make any statement concerning reports
that come regarding the disaster, but he
permitted the fact to be known that the
administration had no advices tending to
confirm the Key West report. The Navy
Department absolutely discredited the
story. Secretary Long said there is no such
thing as percussion hole that there is no
eight-inch torpedo and there is no other
way in which such hole could be accounted
for. 1t is of course possible that shell
exploding inside of the ship pierced a hole
of that kind in the outer skin, but that
would be readily revealed by the character
of angle and whether or not the skin was
bulged in or out around the puncture. 1t is
more likely if there is any hole at all of
the kind that it is simply the outlet of one
Of the numerous pieces from the inside of
the Maine. Secretary Long positively de-
nies that Captain Sigsbee has in any sup
pressed telegram expressed the opinion that
a torpedo caused the disaster or that it
came from an external cause. The captain
said, on the contrary, that he could not
venture to express an opinion.
AT 11:35 a. m. one of the regular staff
correspondents of the Associated Press at
Key West cabed from there that the re-
port of the finding of the hole in the hull
Of the Maine, evidently caused by tor
pedo, was sent from Havana just before
the Onvette sailed, and from source
garded as reliable, but could not be verified
owing to the strict censorship at Havana.
The report was not verified by the officers
of the Maine, who have arrived at Key
West from Havana 1t is the opinion of all
of them that the explosion was due to some
interior cause, and not the result of the
explosion of a torpedo on the outside
Another rumor refused to-day by Secre-
tary Long was the following from New
York:
"a dispatch to the Journal from Wash
ington, dated 1890 a. m, says Captain Sigs-
bee telegraphed the Naval Department,
using the English cipher, that in his opinion
the destruction of the Maine was the act
of an enemy. This dispatch has been sup
pressed by the department, but it is known
to have been received. He requested an
immediate investigation and intimated that
the reason he sent all the survivors to Key
West was that he feared more trouble.
The Washington correspondent of the Her
aid says that he stood on the bridge of
the Maine with Captain Sigsbee a week
ago and Captain Sigsbee said to him: I
don't want to be obliged to take any coal
aboard from Havana. 1t would be risky
experiment. Not that 1 suspect any one in
authority, but there is such an irresponsible
rabble here in Havana that it would be
an easy matter to get couple of sticks of
ing it, The Journal and Advertiser quotes
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore
Roosevelt as saying: I am convinced that
the destruction of the Maine was not an
accident -
The foregoing was telegraphed from here
to New York by special correspondents and
wired back among the regular press dis
patches. None of the reports was con-
firmed. Another dispatch that attracted
attention was the following from New
York:
THE Evening World has received from
Sylvester Scovel, it's correspondent at Ha-
vana, the following reply to an inquiry as
to whether strangers were allowed on the
Maine the day of the disaster: Yes,
visitors were on the Maine all afternoon
Of the day of the explosion. The bomb
might then have been deposited near the
magazine, as l have already cabled. Gables
are much delayed here This dispatch
bears date of to-day