El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-04-02

forward, where the frame was thrown
up, it would seem to me the force was
commune ated some distance thrOuRh
the water because it was lifted up
instead of being battered in. 1t was a
force that was cushioned in some way,
because the diver tells me there was
u bulge in the plates between the two
frames and such force as that wou q
be Gu hiOn pressure. So the plates
in that part of the ship not having
been broken, the ship might have
been lifted up thereby"
Powellson, speaking of the same part CT
the vessel, "that the mine there could
not have been close to those pla e.
that were lifted up. because, as l say.
the plates are not so much damaged
or bent in the 'orm of V and raised
st seems to me that the mine was
somewhat removed, and the pressure
came through the water, which pro-
duced that cushion-sOrt of pressure e.
He had de- cended in all four times,
making about eight or nine hours OF
exami alton. He told how on his first
descent he went over the forward part
of the ship. To use his own express
sion, he said: 81 found the wreck all
blown up"
The second time he went down fur
tier toward he located q lot of ten
inch shells. Forward of these the
plates were bent in
Gunner's Mate Smith, describing
his first descent, VIII Oh landed him in
the ten-inch she'll room, said shells
were there in good order. most of them
nose up, but some tOppled over by the
shock of the explosion, which had
| wreck ed the wood work of the magazine
and blown the bllkh"ad over from port
70 starboard. Lying right across tie
found an amor plate that had been
torn away from the ships side.
"The skin of the ship is in good con-
dition till you c,,me to the jagged
opening leading to the six-inch she'll
room before mentit ned. Here the
steel ed,-es are blown inward"
Crsw ling into the h le he felt the
double bottt' and the jagged edges of
the cement turned up.
He described in detail the ten-inch
powder tanks found here, none of them
apparently exploded, but with the
soldered seems split and the cases
aattened. He said be had rot been
into the ten-lDch magazine on the star
board side. He did not find the for
ward turre'; it was missi' g from the
place where i. belonged. The i'm
pOrtance OF this caused 1t to be gone
over and additional questions along the
line already indicated were put, which
only served to point out more clearly
that abre sst of the six-inch shell room
the who'e side Of the ship had dsap-
peared from the barbor bed to the
water line and the dyes were turned
up.
Gunner Charles Morgan, who was in
charge of the divers, cOrrObOra'ed
Smith in almost every statement.
Carl Rundquist, one of the divers,
said he went down in the after part of
the ten-inch machine magazine and
found lot of empty tsn-inch powder
tanks, dozens of them with pieces
blown in all directions. They did
not look as if they had been exploded
by q power inside. They looked IS if
pressure from the outside opened
them. The ragged edges OF the ship
were bent in starboard. The
bottom of the ship WAS all
blown up. There was hole
n the bottom. It looked as if it had
b en- blown up from the outside, and
nothing from the inside.c could make q
hoe like that; the armor plates also
showed they were blown from the
outside from the way they were
burnt,