The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1898-02-22
THE CASE IN A NUTSHELL.


(From the New York Nortd.)
/. What possible force could destroy
by explosion a battleship like the Maine
at anchor in harbor?
Only an explosion i'm the great maga'
zines of the ship, or the explosion oil
submarine mine under her.
! . Could not her boilers do 1t? ga,
No. AT anchor there is no steam in the
boilers. One boiler only is used to sup
ply power for dynamos. etc. IT is doubt
ful If an explosion of all the ships boil
ers together could make such wreck.
Certainly one could not.
g. How many magazines did the Maine
have?
Eight: four aft and four forward, and
those aft did not explode, as is positively
known.
4 How were the forward magazines
situated?
The principal one. containing about
twenty tons of powder for the lO-inch
guns, was on the starboard side, below
the starboard gun turret. Another call
ed the 6-incn magazine. adjoined it tow
ard the port side. These were the big
forward magazines. The others had am
munition for small arms.
). Could any one of the forward maya
zines have exploded without exploding
the others?
! Probably not. IL one went they must
have all gone. An explosion I'm a small
magazine might not have destroyed the
ship itself, but ii certainly would have
fired an adjoining magazine.
! G. Is there not some evidence that
! some of the forward magazines did not
explode?
/ Yes. A sailor was asleep Immediately
above one and two sailors above am
other, and those three men are alive.
:. As these men could certainly not be
alive if the magazines had exploded UNI
der them, and as those magazines could
not have remained uneXploded IL any
others near them had exploded, this
! seems TO show that none of the forward
/ magazines was exploded, does IL not?
Very certainly.
8. Is there any other evidence on this
point?
An immense mass of evidence In wood
I and iron. Every atom of the wreck
! shows that the force of the explosion was
/ exercised from the port side of the shiI
toward the starboard, and that II was
applied at a point on the ship aft OF the
forward magazines.
.. How does this prove that the eX-
plosion was not in the magazines?
The gigantic forward magazine Is. as
I said on the starboard side Of the ship
near the starboard gun turret. and the
force of the explosion would have acted
from the starboard toward the port-ir
fact. exactly the other way from that II
which the wreck shows the destrcyint
force did act.
10 If. then. the explosion was not il
the ships magazines, il was a submarine
mine?
PHYSICAL science cannot name an,
other conceivable cause.
IL What is a submarine mine?
Ii is a torpedo or a group OF torpedoe'
giving an enormous aggregate OF eNPio
sive force fixed at a given point ins TN
bortom of the harbor or at such depti
as to be in contact with ships bottom
and connected by electrical machinery $
that it may be exploded by man oil
shore.
. under the Maine on her port SIDE accouii
for the facts as known?
Yes: for every one.
IL Could any other conceivable known
or imagined cause account for the 1acts
Absolutely none
a. Is it believed there was such a min
in Havana harbor?
IL is reported as fact that such mine
were prepared when Weyler was IN com
mand
l. What did Weyler mean when he san
that the Incidence. of our officers Lee
to this tragedy?
He probably spoke from his knoWl
edge and meant to say that our officer
. might have discovered. that there was
( mine under the ship.