Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-03-29

Continued from Third Page)
! that she the Maine) should be in the bay,
| and they would blow her up anyhow
Diver Reddy's Story
Seaman Morton Reddy. one of the divers,
! said he had been down to the dynamo room
| of the Maine. He found nothing left there
| except some plates and beams. He could
| not even tell that there had been a dyna-
| mo there, everything entirely gone. He
had felt his way down in the mud as far
| as he could go from the outside and had
walked into the ship from the outside. He
found enc bottom plate far down in the
middle of the plate being bent in and the
| upper part, where it is fastened to another
plate, being thrown out-board. He could
| not tell where this plate was because he
could not see. As ha walked along forward
from aft on the outside there was nothing
left for thirty feet. Everything is gone
underneath there he said. You can walk
from the bottom right into the ship
POwelson's Sketches.
Ensign Powelson was recalled and ex-
planned how he got the data for his
sketches, 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 haroor bed Then he got in
a boat and located the points on the keel
by lead line. On the wreck he estab-
lished stations at the. mainmast, the port
crane. the smokestack and SO forth, and
from these bases he would get the bearing
by angles of his lead line, as it 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 direction any part
of the Maine had been distorted by the ex-
ploSion. without relying on underwater es-
Inmates by the divers.
|. Ensign Powelson. after diagraming the
wreck, was convinced that the bottom was
thrown up and not out.
He described the reports made to him by
the divers. which were afterward directly
testified to before the board. ION March
81 he said L sent Olsen down the piece
| of keel, the vertical keel, to make further
| explorations in the region of the 10-inch
magazine. lie went down to where the
keel became horizontal at frame D. walked
| aft about twenty-five feet, and climbed
| over d lot of wreckage, consisting of plates
and bukheads standing upright. The up
! per ends of these plates were ragged. and
| he crawled over them to what he thought
was part of a boiler He could not give
| definite details, but he thought it was u
/ boiler. A little after this he walked out to
port, clear of the ship into the mud He
was at this time forward of the break of
| the ship at frame Il. Returning about ten
feet in he found wreckage. He examined
| this plate, and found 1t curved, if it
were a part of the ship 1t pointed to-
| ward the starnoard 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 about two and
| one-haif or three feet wide. Forward from
| this point he found siX-inch tank. 1t was
| Intact, and was sent UP. 1t proved to be a
| full tank. He found lot of broken tanks,
| split up on the seams, and in one tank at
the cover which has holes in it. He found
| a lot of mud, which was brought up, and
which looked like 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.
Cornell Saw the Explosion.
| First Officer George Cornell of the City
of Washington testified that he was on the
| deck Of that steamer when the Maine was
! blown up and was looking at the Maine. He
| said he heard a rumbling sound and saw
/ the Maine raise I'D forward. After that
| the explosion occurred and 1.-The stuff was
| flying in the air in all directions She
sank Immediately at the forward end.
He said there was an interval of six
teen or seventeen seconds between the
| rumbling noise and the explosion. When
/ he saw the explosion it came from amid
| ships and there was not much fame. He
| said the Maine was lifted nearly out of the
water. He felt the steamer on which he
| stood shaking at the time the explosion
! took place.
Also Seen by Stevens.
Capt. Frank Stevens of the City of
Washington testified he was standing
amidships of his ship. where he could look
| toward the Maine. when she was blown
up. He heard dull muffied explosion
and commotion as though it was under the
! water. followed instantly by a terrific ex-
piosion, lighting up the sky with dull
red glare and filling the air with flying
| missiles. which fell all around him. He
felt trembling of his ship at the last of
the explosions on the Maine. There was
a decided interval between the first
roise and the explosion. He was not
standing where he could See the Maine
lift,
Commander Forsyth.
James NJ. Forsyth. commander q. s.
navy at the Key West station, testified
that on the 18th of February he had the
anthracite coal pile at Key West thor
oughly examined for "infernals.'
The pile contained thousand tons The
Maine had recently ccaled there twice
The hrst time December 20 to =. the Sec
ond January Is and 10. Nothing unnormal
was discovered In the inspection.
The Survivors Sworn.
Every survivor OF the Maine was as
sembled together and put on oath as to
| whether any of them had any fault to
| find with or complaint to make against
| any one on board the Maine as to his con-
drct on the night OF the explosion or while
the Maine was In Havana harbor. A neg
alive oath Uas promptly given by every
one.
/ GunneFes Mate Randauist Recalled.
Gunner's Mate Rundquist, former wit