Connecticut western news., 1898-02-17
Report From Captain slx,bee.

Washington. Feb. 16.-The secretary of the navy this morning received the following telegram from Captain Sigs- bee:
 Maine blown up In Havana harbor g o'clock last night and was destroyed. Many wounded. and doubtless more killed and drowned. Wounded and oth- CTS on board Spanish man-of-war and Ward line steamer. Send lighthouse tenders from Key West for crew and few pieces of equipment still above water. No one had other clothes than those upon him.
 Public opinion should be suspended till further report. All officers believed to be saved. Jenkins and Merritt not yet accounted for. Many Spanish off, cers, including representatives of Gen. eral Blanco, now with me and express sympathy
 The officers referred to in the above dispatch are Friend w. Jenkins and Assistant Engineer Darwin R. Merritt. From the wording of the dispatch the navy department thinks 1t possible that they were on shore at the time of the accident The secretary of the navy received another dispatch from Key West at the same time with the above, but its contents were not made public.
 The orders for the lighthouse tenders were at once sent to Key West in plain language. thus avoiding the delay that would have arisen from the use of cipher.
 The Maine is a battleship of the sec ond class and Is regarded as one of the best ships in the new navy. She was built at the Brooklyn navy yard and is SIS feet long. 57 feet broad, ZIG feet mean draft and 6.sS2 tons displacement.
 The Maine was built in Brooklyn na- wy yard in 1890 at cost of s5l7 GOO She had a steel hull and a complement of 374 men.
 She has two 10-inch vertical turrets and two military mests, and her mo- tive power is furnished by twin screw vertical triple expansion engines hav- ing maxiIaum horsepower of s.293, capable Of making speed of l745 knots. She carries four 10-inch and six 6-ineh breech loading guns in her main battery and seven 6-pound and eight l-pound rapid fire guns and four gat- Iings in her secondary battery, and four whitehead torpedoes.
 The officers of the Maine are: Captain Charles D. S:gsbee, commanding; Lieu tenant Commander Richard Vain wright, Lieutenants G. F. w. Holman John Hood and Carl w. Jungen; Lieu tenants Ounior grade) George F. Blow. John J. Elliott; Naval Cadets Jonas If. Holden, Watt T. Cluverius, Anon Bronson and David F. Boyd, Jr. Sur geon Lucien G. Heneberger, Paymaster Charles w. Littlefield. Chief Engineer Charles P. Howell. Passed Assistant En- gineer Frederick C. Bowers. Assistant Engineers John k. Morris and Darwin k. Merritt; Naval Cadets (engineer di- vision) Pope Washington and Arthur Crenshaw; Chaplain John P. Chadwick, First Lieutenant of Marines Albertus W. Catlin, Boatswain Francis k. Lar kin, Gunner Joseph IIill. Carpenter George Helms.
 The commander of the Maine, Captain Sigsbee. Is a favorite in the navy de- partment. For four years he was chief of the Photographic office, and by his energy brought the office up to high standard. He was lucky to get so im- portant a ship as the Maine, consider Ing his actual rank. which is that of commander, but immediately he justi- fled the departments judgment in the selection by running his ship straight into a dock in New York harbor to avoid running down a packed excursion boat. This was a display Of quick Judgment, nerve and pluck that pleased the department go highly that the cap- tain was sent a complimentary letter.