The Indianapolis journal., 1898-12-07
CAPTAIN sIGsBIaE's STORY.
His Own Account of the Blowing Up
Of the Mime.

Capt. Charles d. Sigsbee is contributing
to the Century Magazine his Personal Mar
rative of the Maine. In the December
blowing up of the Maine and the scenes
that followed it. Captain Sigsbee says:
About an hour before the explosion / had
completed report called for by Mr.. Theo-
dore Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the
navy, on the advisability of continuing to
place torpedo tubes on board cruisers and
battle ships. 1 then wrote letter home in
which j struggled to apologize for having
carried In my pocket for ten months letter
to my wife from one of her friends of long
standing The cabin mess attendant, James
Pinckney, had brought me, about an hour
before, a civilians thin coat, because of the
prevailing heat; l had taken off my blouse,
and was wearing this coat for the only time
during the cruise. In the pocket 1 had
found the unopened and undelivered letter.
Pinckney, light-hearted colored man. who
spent much of his spare time in singing,
playing the banjo, and dancing jigs, was
for some reason in an especially happy
frame of mind that night. Poor fellow he
was killed as was also good old John r.
Bell, the. colored cabin steward. who had
been in the navy twenty-seVen years.
AT taps (turn in and keep quiet'), ten
minutes after o'clock, laid down my pen
to listen to the notes of the bugle which
were singularly beautiful in the oppressive
stiffness of the night. The marine bugler,
Newton, who was rather given to fanciful
effects, was evidently doing his best Dur
| ing his pauses the echoes hoated back to the
ship with singular distinctness, repeating
the strains of the bugle fully and exactly.
"A
| was inclosing my letter in its envelope
when the explosion came. The impression
made on different people on board the Maine
| varied somewhat To me, in my position,
! we'll aft, and within the superstructure ii
| was bursting, rending, and crashing sound
| or roar of immense volume. largely metallic
| in character. 1t was followed by a success
| sion of heavy ominouS, metallic sounds
probably caused by the overturning of the
central supeTstructure and by falling debris
There was a trembling and lurching motion
| of the vessel. a list to port, and a move
ment of subsidence The electric lights Of
which there were eight in the cabin where
| [ was sitting, went out. Then there was
| intense blackness and smoke.
The situation could not be mistaken: the
Maine was blown up and sinking For a
| moment the instinct of self-preservation
took charge of me, but this was imme-
iiately dominated by the habit of command
| I went up the inclined deck into the star
| board cabin, toward the starboard air ports
| background of the sky. The sashes were
! intention was an escape through an air
| Dort, but this was abandoned in favor of
| the more dignified way of making exit
| through the passageway leading forward
| through the superstructure. j CROPPED my
/ way through the cabin into the passage
| nd along the passage TO the outer door
| The passage turned TO the right. or star
| board. near the forward part of the SUPER
| structure.
| When the turn was reached some one
| ean into me violently. 1t was private Will
| lam Anthony, the orderly at the cabin
door. He said something apologetic, and