The record-union., 1898-04-09
A SUBMARINE MINE.
Electrician Gibbons Says That It
Was the Cause of the Disaster.

NEW YORK, April S.-Joseph Paul
Gibbens, the electrician who supplied
submarine mines to the Spanish Gov
ernment, cables from London to the
World"
The only submarine mines which
have been supplied to the Spanish Gov
ernment since 1SS6-S7 We're manu-
factured under ssy own patents. theIa
supplied them with fifty-six ground
mines, twenty-five buoyant mines, each
with a charge of 800 pounds of gun
cotton, and fifteen electro contact mines,
exploded either by contact or by SER
vice from shore, each containing a
charge of 100 pounds of gun cotton.
In 1SS6-9T the Spanish Government
ordered a fresh supply of my patent
mines. Whether they went to Havana
or not is immaterial One of the mines
supplied in 1886 is still fully capable of
causing the destruction of the Maine.
In fact, l am convinced, from all sur
rounding circumstances, that no other
agency could have caused it.
In direct contradiction of the asser-
tions of the Secretary of the Spanish
legation at Washington and of General
Weyler that there are no submarine
mines in Havana harbor, 1 absolutely
affirm that 1 shipped the above mines
for Havana and Ferrol in a Spanish
ship, the property of the Spanish Gov
ernment and officered by Spanish ma
val officers, with two Captains, at the
West India dock, London.
My mines are in electrical connec-
tion with the shore, and it is quite
impossible that they could be exploded
ed except by design.
L am convinced also that the expIo-
sion of the mine which destroyed the
Maine was the work of one or two men,
for these reasons.
First, a vessel swinging, either an
chored or moored upon striking the
circuit closer case would merely drop
a shutter on the keyboard on shore,
warning the officer in charge that she
was in contact with the mine.
Second. before the officer is in po-
sition to fire the mine he must obtain
one of two keys. One is generally kept
by the commandant, the other by the
officer in charge of the firing station.
He then must unlock the glass door
over which the shutter has fallen, and
insert a red danger plug in the insu-
lated switch.
Third. he must insert q plug in the
y
Fourth, the firing key hammer must
be pressed on the contact anvil to COM
plete the circuit that expiodes the de-
tonator by which the mine in turn is
exploded.
II have not the slightest hesitation
in saying that the Maine was deliber-
ately destroyed with a 500-pound
ground mine as invented and supplied
| by me.
There is a consensus of opinion that
the first explosion was external. This
was established on the following
grounds: The forward magazine con-
tanned 200 pounds of gunpOwder, which
might blow up the decks, but it is prob
lematical whether it would be capable
of igniting the $500 pounds of powder
in the middle magazine. Even if it
did the explosion of both would be
quite incapable of decorating the $500
pounds of wet guncotton in the after
magazine Had that quantity Of gum
cotton been detonated. not vestige
of the Maine would remain.
"The only practical way of discover
| ing the mine that sunk the Maine is by
under running the cable from the shore
| to the junction box, and from thence
undermining each individual cable to
the mine. until one was found without
| a mine attached.
! II am confident that the explosion
was caused by a ground mine-not by
| a buoyant mine-for Havana harbor is
| too shallow to admit of the use of the
/ latter.
Il am prepared to satisfy my demon
stration before any jury of reasonable
men that this is true explanation OF
/ the destruction of the Maine