The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-29

I head of il gone. / also saw ten-inch
( tanks with the packing which looked
like powder. unburnt, so that, in my
opinion, some, but not all. of the ten
4 inch and six-inch charges were explod-
ed
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 exploded
and burned out so that the case formed
almost a plain surface. The ten-inch
! tank had its head removed, but ii had
! preserved its approximate shape.
When questioned further as TO what
/ he regarded as the cause of the in
| Jury, Mr.. Powelson said: ION the bot
! tom where the frame was thrown up,
! it would seem to me that force was
! communicated some distance through
| the water, because it was lifted up in
! stead of being battered in. 1t was a
! force that was cushioned in some way,
because the diver tells me there was
/ bulge in the plates between the two
| frames, and such force as that would
/ be cushion pressure. So the plates in
| that part. of the ship, having been
/ broken in this explosion, may have oc-
Cured 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
1T struck me-" continued Mr.. Pow
elson, speaking of the same part of
the vessel. that the mine there could
not have been very close to those plates
that were lifted IN because, as / say,
! the plates are not so much damaged or
/ bent in the form of a V and raised up a
vertical distance. 1t seems to me that
the mine was somewhat removed and
the pressure came through the water,
which produced that cushion-sort of
pressure"
THE KEEL PLATES.
Ensign Powelson was recalled on Feb
p and showed the plans of the Maine,
from which ne had identified the bot
tom plates that were blown up through
the upper deck. The finding of these
plates On top of the wreck. clear above
water, was among the first and most
important points of evidence clearly
disproving the possibility of an internal
explosion. After infinitely describing
the bottom plates, with their green
coating Of paint and other marks by
which they were identified Powelson
stated that they must have been blown
up 3S or 80 feet to reach their present
position.
Besides the bottom plates, Powelson
found some pieces from the bottom
compartment lodged in the angle of the
bottom plates that protruded above the
water.
The berth deck over this bottom com
partment was also on top of the wreck
and 20 feet forward of the plates, while
this section of the main deck had dis
appeared.
The diver who had been working for
POwelson on this investigation informed
him that he had found the ammuni-
ton for the siX-inch magazine pushed
over TO the Starboard side.
EnSior1 pou-aISo11 xx-ac 1.ac- He'd o-, a
18th dag and described the reports
made to him by the divers. which were
afterward directly testified to before
the board.
WHAT THE DIVER FOUND.
March 5" testified Powelson, I sent
Olsen down the piece of keel, the YER
teal keel, TO make further explorations |
Of the ten-inch magazine. He went I
down to where the keel became hori- |
zontal, at frame %, walked aft about /
% feet, and climbed over a lot of wreck !
ase, consisting OF plates and bull1heads /
standing upright These upper ends /
to what he thought was a part of a !
boiler. He could not give definite de- |
tails. but he thought it was a boiler A I
little after this he walked out to port |
clear of the ship in the mud. He was |
at this time forward of the break of !
the ship, at frame Al. Returning about /
ten feet in he found wreckage He ex-
amined this plate and found it curved |
as if it was a part of the ship. 1t J
pointed toward the starboard bow, but |
it was so dark he could not distinguish /
the color. All the edges of the plating
were rough.
The compartment seemed to be three |
and a half or four feet wide. Forward /
from this point he found a six-inch /
ra~t- nd
1t proved 10 be a full tank. He. founo
a lot of broken tanks split upon the !
seams, and in one tank, al the cover.
which has holes in it. He found a lot
of mud which was brought up, and
which looked Ike dissolved powder.
There was any quantity of similar mud
in the same place. The mud around |
the tanks was black: that of the harbor
is gray.
Ensign Powelson was recalled on
March 10 and explained how he got the
data for his sketching which played
such an important part in the work Of
the court. He said he sent divers down
at various points along the line of the
keel as it lay broken and twisted on
the harbor bed. Then he got in a boat
and located the points on the keel by
a lead line. In the wreck he estab-
lished stations at the main mast. the
port crane the smokestack and so
forth ar1 from these bases he would
get the bearing by angles of his lead
Dne as il rested on the keel and other
points of the wreckage under water
Thus he was able to plat a map of the
wreck. both above and below water.
that was automatically correct.
BY comparing this with the original
plans of the vessel it was possible to
tell just how much and in what direc-
ton any part of the Maine had been
distorted by the explosion without rely
ing on underwater estimates by the
divers.