The San Francisco call., 1898-03-29

message and findings of the court re- ferred to the Committee on Foreign Re lations. The testimony was taken on eighteen different days, the fourteenth day and over being devoted to viewing the wreck. Every witness who was known to have any information that could throw light upon the great dis aster was called to give his testimony. The story of the destruction of the ves- sel is to-day not graphically given, but in manner which gives all the ob- tainable facts. No technical detail is omitted. Every movement and incl dent connected with the Maine from the time she left Key West until the last diver examined the wreck slowly sinking in the mud of Havana harbor is stated.
 It is a story intensely interesting to the people. Those who read it could have little doubt as to whether there was an internal or external explosion. Perhaps the most significant testimony is that showing the bottom plates n the port side of the ill-fated Maine to be bent inward and upward, a result that hardly could have followed any, thing save an explosion from the out side. A mass of testimony is sub- mitted, showing the care exercised on hoard the ship by Captain Sigsbee and
 
 slbility of accident occurring by an in- ternal cause, such as the heating ct bunkers, spontaneous combustion or other causes upon which so many the orieS were based.
 The testimony of Captain Sigsbee Is of the greatest importance and per haps is of more general interest than that of any other man called. With great care and minuteness ne gives an account of the management of the ship, how she was handled, how she sailed into Havana, her anchorage and what he knew about it and, in fact. every point upon which the Govern ment and the country desires tr be in- formed. Nothing in Captain Sigsbca'o report shows that the anchorage was changed or that it was considered dan EerJus by any one.
 % Second in importance of the testimo- ny of Captain Sigsbee is that of Ensign PoWelson, who had charge of the divers and knew from day to day what the di- VeTs found. This officer was minutely informed as to the construction of the Maine and everything about her. His testimony was to a certain extent tech nical, bearing upon the construction of the ship, her plates, etc, but it was from these plates and this technical knowledge that he was able to declare that the explosion took place from the outside. The divers, Morgan. Olsen and Smith, all contributed important evil dence. They testified that the plates were bent inward on the bottom port side and outward on the starboard side
 Nothing in the testimony fixes re- spOnsibility, but although conspiracy is apparent, no knowledge of the planting of a mine is shown. Captain SigSbee states that a somewhat bitter feeling existed against the American ship and Americans generally, and a witness whose name is suppressed tells of over o ot Grla icI1 officers and a citizen indicating a fore knowledge of the destruction of the Maine by intention to blow her up. An official of the American Consulate tells of information received anonymously tending to show that a conspiracy ex- lsted. But nothing was definitely stat ed which fixes any responsibility upon Spain or her subjects.
 CONSUL-GENERAL FITZHUGH LEE ap- mony related to the official fCTmaities pre- ceding the Maines arrival. On January 24 he received a message from the State Department saying that the Maine woald be sent t7 Ha- vana on a friendly visit to resume the regu- lar status of naval relations between the two countries, and he was ordered to make engagement at the palace for the interchange Of official courtesies. After call at the pal ace he sent the State Department message saying: Authorities profess to think the the ship Say 1t will obstruct autonomy and produce excitement, and most probably a dem onstration. Ask that 1t be not done until they get instructions from Madrid Say that if friendly purpose, as claimed delay is unim-
 It was too late however. the Maine having already sailed. She arrived next day and re-
 CAPTAIN SIGSBEE in testfying before the Court of Inquiry said that he assumed com shin arrived in the harbor of Havana the last time January 24 1898. The authorities at Ha- vana knew of the Maine's coming, Consul-Cen- eraf Lee having informed the authorities ac- sording to official custom. After he took official pilot. sent by the Captain of the Port of Havana the ship berthed in the man-of- var anchorage of the Machina. the Shears, and according to his understanding it was one of the regular buoys of the place.
 He then stated that he had been In Havana m 1872 and again in 1898. He could not state whether the Maine was placed in the usual berth for men-of-war. but said that he had beard remarks since the explosion using Cap Yard line steamer City of Washington, as au- thority for the statement, that he had never known in all his experience, which covered visits to Havana for five or six years, a man ef-war to be anchored at that buoy that he Sad rarely known merchant vessels to be an hored there. and that it was the least used In describing the surroundings when first rnoored to this buoy, Captain Sigsbee stated that the Spanish man-of-war Alfonso XII was anchored in the position now occupied by the Fern. about 250 yards to the northward and westward of the Maine. The German ship Erfesenau was anchored at the berth ,upied by the Spanish man-of-war Le Caspe. which is bout 400 yards about due north from the Maine He then located the German man Dor a day or two later and which was anchored to the southward of the Maine's berth about 400 500 yards
 Tn describing the surroundings at the lime of he explosion, Captain Sigsbee stated that the light calm and still. The Alfonso XII Fas at the same berth. The small Spanish Nspatch boat Le Caspe had come out the day before and taken the berth occupied by the German man-of-war, the Griesenau, which had left. The steamer City of Washington was anchored about POO yards to the south ana east of the Maine's stern. slightly on the port quarter.
 The Maine coa1ed at Key West. taking on about 150 tons. the coal being regularly in- spected and taken from the Government coal pile. This coal placed generally in the forward bunkers. No report was received from very long in the bunkers and that the fire alarms in the bunkers were sensitive.
 The regulations regarding inflammables and paints board Captain Sigsbee testified. were strictly carried out in regard to storage and that the waste also subject to the same careful disposition AS to the situation of the paint room, he fixed it as in the "eyes of the ship just below the berth deck. the extreme forward compartment The infamma- in fo tha