The Portland daily press., 1898-03-29


niece was u portion Of the port side or
The beth deck twisted around to starboarC
Taking forward The lower portion OF
the ship near the keel at frame II, was
thrown up and abaft the same portion
of the ship at higher deck. These
side of the goriginal keel, but canted
to starboard; the bottom Of
the ship, the protectivej deck and the
| berth deck show above water at pres
emit. The forwards of the six-inch maya
zine Is just below the three pieces OF
deck as these originally were. Between
frame II and 81 there are two magazines.
LIEUT.. HOOD.
| Lieut.. John Hood, senior watch officer
| in charge of the powder division. said
| he had inspected the magazines and shell
rooms and there was nothing stored there
| contrary to the ordnance regulations.
He was absolutely sure, he said, that on
the night of the explosion, E'There was
nothing being done beyond the ordinary
work down there.'
| These rooms had only been opened on
the day of the explosion to take the tenn
| perature.
| MIR. Hood was officer of the deck part
of the time aud while acting in that
capacity he had not noticed any hostile
| demonstration afioat in the way of boats
approaching the ship. He felt the ex-
| plosion rather than heard it. 1t sounded
and felt like an under water explosion
and he WAS at the time under the impress
| sion that 1t came from the start board for
ward. There were two explosions. follow
| ing closely. Immediately following the
fall of objects he saw the water in foam,
much wreckage and many groaning
men. The first explosion was as il
something has exploded under the vessel.
He was sitting far aft and supposed the
explosion was on the starboard side, but
that was only an impression as his view
was obstructed. At The second explo-
sion there was an upshoot of flame. His
belief was that the whole of the for
ward fpart of the superstructure that is
now lying on the tarboard gangway
was in the air when the second explosion
occurred. 1.-THE second explosion occurred
on the starboard side.
CHAPLAIN CHADWICK.
Chaplain John p. Chadwick of the
Maine, was in his room on board, the
night of the occurrence. He said
81 heard a loud report, and everything
at once became dark. The lights went
QUIT and there was sscrashing sound Of
things falling. l rushed on deck ana got
to the captains poop where l saw the
captain giving his orders. After trying
to cheer up the men who were crying
out in the water for help. was ordered
by Lieut.. Jungen to go into boat,
which did He rowed around the ship
and picked up ono man. Then with the
orders of the captain, we pulled for the
City of Washington. Asked how many
shocks he felt, witness said he remem
bered only one.
AN ANONYMOUS WITNESS.
On the fifth day witness was intro
duced whose name was suppressed by
agreement between him and the court.
He had to talk through an interpreter.
This witness was crossing about 7.30 on
the morning of the 18th from Havana
near three Spanish officers two of the
army, one of the navy and citizen.
They were talking about the Maine.
One of the army officers said: THAT it
neatly arranged The citizen asked if
making explosions in the bay would not
endanger Havana. The officer said
s'No." 1t was so arranged that it would
would sink Immediately. The other man
exclaimed: II will take plenty of beer on
that OCCASION" Some one came by and
they suddenly stopped the conversation.
They had said it was q shame she (the
Maine) should be in the bay and they
would blow her up anyhow
ad LIEUT.. JUNGEN.
Lieut. Jungen testified that all the am
Tnunition was properly slowed the night
of the explosion. He said, however, that
there was an extra supply of 10-inch
shells in the loading and passing room
which had been gotten ready for imme-
diate use the night s'we started over for
Havana from Tortugas.'
He considered Nelson, in charge of
the hold, reliable man. He was in the
mess room talking to Mr.. Jenkins and
Mr.. Holman when the explosion oc-
Cured. He described the explosion as
a ''dull, deafening roar, followed imme-
diately by a tremendous crash, and 1T
seemed as though the whole ship was
going to pieces. Lieut.. Holmes jumped
up and remarked, I'VE have all been tor
pedoed which was the general impress
sion we all had. -
CAPTAIN STEVENS.
Capt. Frank Stevens CT tie City of
Washington, testified he was standing
amidship of his wheel where he could
look towards the Maine when she was
blown up. He heard o dull. muffied
explosion and commotion as though it
was under the water followed by ter
rifle explosion, 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.flrst noise and the explosion. He was
not standing where he could see the
Maine lift