The San Francisco call., 1898-03-03
EVIDENCE ALL TENDS ONE WAY Naval Officers Certain That a Mine Blew Up
 the Maine. Opinions at Havana Are That the Board Will So
 Declare. Spaniards Have Been Given Pernnis- sion to Make an Independent
 Investigation.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

HAVANA, March 2.-Without adding l unnecessarily to the flood of surmises eonjectures and prophecies concerning the finding of the Court of Inquiry, il Is fair to say that, as mater of fact most of the naval officers here and at Key West incline to the opinion that the court will find that the disaster to the Maine was caused by the explosion of a floating submarine mine under the port side of the ship, forward. Opin- ions differ as to whether the mine was made of high explosives, such as wet and dry gun cotton, or ordinary gum powder.
 Opinions agree, not only as to the ex- istence of mines in the harbor, but also that this one was laid purposely near the buoy where foreign vessels were directed to moor, and was fired from an electric battery on shore.
 It is believed barely possible that the explosion of the mine was the result | of carelessness or ignorance of Spanish officers in charge of the mine station keys, when testing the circuit, but the latter supposition is not felt to be prob able It is further regarded as settled DN lHS GFlu6HC6 Dc1OIt tIle OOul bho the port side of the hull forward was completely blown to pieces, and that the only explosion on the Maine, except for isolated cases of fixed ammunition, was that of 2000 pounds of saluting powder, stored forward, and of which no trace can be found.
 These views are gathered from off, cers who talk with great reserve and only upon the assurance that their identity will never be revealed. The fact remains that only the members of the court of inquiry know all the testi- mony elicited, and no one Is authorized to make public matters in advance of the final judgment.
 A great deal of surprise was eX- pressed by Americans here at learning that the Spanish divers were to be permitted to make an examination of the wreck of the Maine, especially as it was also said American naval officers would give such divers all consistent facilities and would throw no obstacles in the way of a thorough submarine l inspection. It was not at first under Stood-as 1t came to be later-that the Spanish search was to be entirely in dependent, and while it was being
 made the American investigation would proceed under Captain Sigsbee's super vision. AS understood here, the Spanish request, made immediately after the disaster, for a joint investigation, was promptly refused at Washington, but after a Cabinet consultation it was agreed that the Spaniards had a moral and international right to discover the cause of the wreck for themselves if possible.
 Therefore, permission for an inde- pendent examination was granted, on the ground, as understood here, that it could not be refused to a friendly power in her own harbor. That the permis- sion was not accorded until after the Court of Inquiry had finished it's work here and gone to Key West is regarded as significant. It opens a wide field for speculation.
 Some assert that the court now has no objection to a Spanish inquiry, for one of two reasons:. Either the court has sufficient evidence already of acci- dent or malice-evidence that cannot be controYerted by the Spaniards-or, after diligent search, the mystery re- mains as deep as ever, and the court does not think the Spaniards will reach conclusion where the Americans have failed. Of course, all this refers princi- pally to inspection of parts of the ship other than the hull. Until the guns, decks, engines and debris of all kinds have been removed and the mud has been pumped from the hull, it cannot be examined thoroughly by any one. Some good authorities think it will be necessary to build a cofferdam around the wreck, piles being driven etc