Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-02-25

| A despatch from Key West says I'm
credible as 1t may seem, am assured that
after partial examination OF the maga-
zines of the Maine, the divers report that
the one in which the explosion is supposed
TO have occurred is intact"
| Lieut.. Commander Barnett, of the Bache,
says there are 81 chances out of 100 that
the investigation will show that the for
ward magazine of the Maine did not blow
up first, II it exploded at all, and that II
was not the cause of the terrific conse-
| quences that followed,
Divers recovered Sunday the cipher code,
the log OF the Maine and many official
and private papers.
A cablegram from Havana to the New
York Herald of Wednesday says: II am
able to give you the result of the investga-
tion made this morning by divers. Those
that penetrated into the forward part of
the wreck found that the whole forward
end of the ship, from a point just abaft
the forward turrent, had been twisted -
to 20 degrees to starboard. That part of
the vessel was wilderness of debris and
curled and twisted plates. The sharp,
jagged edges of some of the plates added
danger TO the difficulties of the divers, get
ting life lines into tangle and fraying the
cords, and in one instance almost cutting
through rubber tube which supplied a
diver with air. Before the explosion the
ten-inch magazine was located on the star
board side forward and beneath the for
ward turrent; what is left of the magazine
seems TO have been driven towards the
port bow in a diagonal and upward dlrec-
tion. The siX-inch magazine, which had
its location in the port side of the ship for
ward, was hurled in direction opposite to
that of the ten-inch magazine"
A telegram from Captain Sigsbee says
that only the most experienced wrecking
divers can do effective work on the Maine.
Parts of the vessel, especially the super
structure and connections, are one confused
mass of metal.
The experts who first ventured the the
ory of a bursting boiler as the cause of the
destruction claim to find strong reinforce
ment for that belief in the photographs
taken of the wreck. A great mass of
metal appears to be thrown up over the
boiler space, and not over the forward
magazine.
Orders have been issued for the enlist
ment of 300 men for the navy to fill the
vacancies caused by the destruction of the
battleship Maine and to complete the legal
quota
Representative Foote of New York pre-
sented in the House Friday a bill propos-
ing to appropriate S4,000,O00, to be imme-
diately available to enable the secretary of
the treasury to procure battleship to re-
place the Maine, either by purchase or by
construction. This bill leaves the whole
matter at the discretion OF the secretary,
and by its authorization of purchase sug-
gests that it might be possible to replace
the lost vessel with little delay If any ma
tion could be found willing to sell battle
ship. The bill was referred to the com
mittee on naval affairs.
There is no abatement of the talk of the
expedency of raising the Maine Chief
Constructor Hichborn is one of the most
earnest advocates of the resurrection of
the ship, both from sentimental and prac-
tical considerations. He points out that
the ship lies in land-locked harbor easy
for the wreckers to operate in, and that if
she can be rebuilt at u cost of $1,000, 900
the government will save $4,000,000, the
first cost of such battle ship, with all of