The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-17
THE HARRINGTON PUBLISHING co
TREACHERY IS CHARGED
FLOATING TORPEDO SAID TO HAVE
 DESTROYED THE MAINE.

Assurance From Reliable Quarter That
 Captain sigsbee is of This Opinion and
 Has So Informed the Navy Departnent--
 Asks at the Same Time That Naval Er.
 gineers be Sent to Investigate-Olivette
 Arrives at Key West With the Wounded
 Sailors Believe the Explosion the Re-
 suit of Deep Laid Plot.
 Key West, Fla, Feb. 16.-The corre- spondent of The Associated Press has been assured from reliable quarter that Captain Sigsbee is under the inn pression that the Maine was blown un by a floating torpedo and that he has communicated his impressions to Washington asking at the same time that the naval department should send naval engineers to investigate the ex- plosion. The Plant Olivette did not leave Havana until o'clock this after noon and did not reach here until shortly after 10 o'clock.
 Jacksonville, Fla, Feb. 16.--Thc steamship Olivette arrived here to- night with large number of the wounded and many of the survivors of the Maine disaster. The officers were, as a rule, reticent and followed in line with their chief, Sigsbee, in saying that the cause of the explosion could only be ascertained by divers, but many of the sailors were outspoken irl their declaration of belief that the ex- plosion was a deep-laid plot of the Spaniards. They are greatly incensed against the Havana people, who have shown them small courtesy, who looked upon their presence as national af- front, and who have published anony- nous circulars captioned Down With Americans" They believe that the authors of such expressed and cow ardly hatred would not stop at an act of such terrible vengeance as the blow ing up of the Maine.
 The captain of the Olivette gave the following account of the disaster: ssThe explosion is an absolute mystery to everyone. It occurred in the forward magazine and below the water line. The coal bunkers are outside, but sep arated by two feet of space Accord- ing to custom the magazine was irl- spected at o'clock in the evening and the temperature found to be 59. The magazine was looked and the keys gfy- en to Captain Sigsbee. The men went to their hammocks in the forward part of the ship soon after 9 o'clock. The explosion occurred at $40 and hence the awful and overwhelming loss of life. No one can yet give connected account. About ten men who were iii the forward part of the ship were saved and of these several men had their hammocks slung on the lower deck. The explosion split the big ship in two and threw these and one marine who was sleeping on the superstructure forty feet in the air and into the water.
 In the magazine were twenty-five tons of coarse powder used for charg- ing the big guns, there being no dy- namite powder nor torpedo heads and nothing in fact that could be exploded by concussion. In the main magazine aft the high explosives were stored and this magazine did not explode. There are no electric wires connecting with or near the magazine The aft part of the ship sank in three minutes and the officers and survivors of the crew escaped half clothed. Pieces of the wreckage flew a distance of five hundred yards. One large piece of cement struck the quarter deck of the City of Washington of the Ward line, which anchored ahead of the Maine twenty minutes before the explosion.