The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-09
What VIII it Re port?

The New York Herald's Havana CORE
spondent has been trying to tell the truth.
OF the Board of Inquiry. he says:
The court is practically certain to re-
port that the Maine disaster was not an
| accident.
Il believe it is equally certain to indi-
cate clearly facts which prove the pri-
mary explosion 20 have been under the
ships bottom and not over it.
The court is not likely TO fasten the ac-
cident on any person or persons, much
less to attribute 1t directly to any repre-
sentatives of the Spanish government.
Its report will probably be unanimous -
He further states, in record to the evil
dence Of Ensign Powelson. who is in
charge Of the divers, and upon whose
testimony the report will be made: 1T is
not saying too much today to assert that
the conclusions TO be officially incorpOr-
ated in the report CT the naval board of
inquiry will rest on the evidence frse
presented by Ensign Powelson, I do not
mean that verdict so important viii be
rested upon the testimony of any single
individual, but rather upon the cumula-
tive and convincing structure OF cor
roborative facts which the court has now
built up on the foundation laid by the
important discoveries which that officer
first brought to its notice.
Your correspondent has no desire to
magnify the Importance of Ensign Powell
sons part of the international drama
now being played in the neishboring har-
Dor of two friendly powers. have never
met Mr.. Powelson personally and Go not
know him by sight, but the fact remains
that the courts chief purpose in returning
TO Havana yesterday was to clinch beyond
the peradventure of doubt this very evil
dence and to record it so conclusively
that its accuracy can never fairly be
questioned.
mo other witness was summoned Sat
urday, though the court held its usual
two sessions, and they were busy ones,
too. In all probability no other witness
than Powelson will be heard further, and
if any other testimony is taken hereafter
in Havana than that of the ensign it will
be of an incidental rather than of a vital
character.
The Herald, in its report of the court
of inquiTy's task, has INDUCED in no
flights of imagination, nor has it given
credence to wild reports emanating from
irresponsible or prejudiced sources. 1t
was first to explain the nature of Mr..
Powelson's discoveries and was quick to
realize their vast import. That the court
itself places a like value upon this par
ticular evidence is pretty well establish
ed by the fact that il has already given
to Mr. .Powelson more of its time than
has been devoted TO any other five wit
nesses combined, except, perhaps, to Cap
tain Sigsbee.
Il have learned today that when the
court of inquiry left here nearly a week
ago for Key West it realized thoroughly
that in Mr.. Powelson's report lay the
true key to the problem. 1t requested that
a portion of the divers at work on the
wreck should be kept busy exclusively
in verifying or disproving its deductions
Lieutenant Commander Wainwright
readily assented and it was agreed that
the reports of these divers should be made
TO the court in writing and presented by
Mr.. Powelson. Mr.. Wainwright, being
Mr. Powelson's superior in rank, has re-
tanned supervision of the divers move
ments, but one of the most efficient of
the corps of submarine experts has act
ed for nearly a week practically under
the orders of the ensign, making written
reports through him.
Ensign Powelson meanwhile has found
time to perfect new and elaborate draw
ings showing the bottom plates from the
Maine which were forced upward twenty
feet from their normal position. illustrat-
ing the condition of the keel and the
magazines and their contents, and indicat-
ing the evidence that the greatest force
of the explosion was exerted upward and
in the direction of port to starboard. All
the discoveries of the divers which have
been made since Monday have tended to
his positive statement that
the explosion had it's origin in a force ex-
erted externally. The ensign's position
now appears to be impregnable.'