The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-02-17
VIEW ED AS AN ACCIDENT.

| VIEWED AS AN ACCIDENT.
Naval officials VIII Express No Harsh
/ Views Pending Investigation.
Washington, Feb. 17.--Aftcr a day Of
intense excitement at the navy depart
ment and elsewhere growing out of the
destruction OF the batteship Maine in
Havana haibor Tuesday night the sit
| uation after the exchange Of a num-
! ber OF cab|egrams between Washing
| ton and Havana can be summed up in
| the words of Secretary Long, who when
asked as he was about to depart for
| the day whether he had reason to sus-
| pect that the disaster was the work of
| an enemy. replied: II do not, in that
l am influenced by the fact that Cap
tain Sissbee has not YET reported to the
| navy department on the cause. He
is evidently waiting to write a full re-
| port. So long as he does not express
himself, l certainly cannot. l should
| think from the indications, however
! that there was an accidert--that the
magazine exploded. How that came
| about l do not know. For the present,
| at least, no other warship will be sent
| to Havana"
There are a great number of theories,
but most of them are of a character
that makes 1t easy to prove or upset
them by a simple investigation Of
diver. Secretary Long has taken i'm
mediate steps to make this investiga-
ton. Late yesterday afternoon he tee-
graphed to Admiral Sicard. at Key
West, to appoint board of naval Of
flcers to proceed at once to Havana,
nnnlpV divers pnparnllu tn lya
such an inquiry as the regulations Of
the navy demand shall be made in the
case of the loss of ship 1t is ex-
pecied that this work will take some
time. and while there are officers who
say that In their opinion 1t will not be
possible, owing to the probably dis
rupted condition Of the hull Of the ship,
to make out the cause of the explosion.
the opinion Of the majority Is that the
question will he easily settled by the
simple observations of the condition Of
the slip sli an pfares In the neighbour
hood of the hole which sunk her,
whether or not they are bulged out, as
would be the case If the explosion came
from the inside, or whether they were
driven in, as would result from the
attack of a torpedo or the explosion of
a mine beneath the ship.
The large majority of naval officers
are inclined TO the belief that the ex-
plnsion resulted from spontaneous COM
bustion of a coal bunker, the over
heating of the iron apartments between
the boilers and magazine, or from the
explosion of boiler, though the last
theory finds little support.
The naval constructors, in the light
rf Ia tyla 20,
that it is by no means certain that the
Maine cannot be raised and again car
ry the flag. They say that while she
is a big ship others as large have been
raised and at Havana the now float
ing drydocli would receive her If she
could once be gotten above the water.
1t Is said at the navy department |
that this disaster is the greatest of the |
kind in naval history since the sinking |
Of the big British warshp Victoria by !
collision with the Camperdown in the |
Mediterranean, off Malta, June, 1898. BY |
that accident the British admiral COM !,
manding, 90 officers and 1886 men lost |
their lives.
The Spanish legation was early ad-
vised of the horror by Captain General
B!anco, who expressed his profound re-
gret, and added that the occurrence |
was q chance accident, the undoubted
cause being an explosion of the boiler
of the dynamo. This was the only
specific cause assigned from an official
source during the day.
The disaster is remarkable in that
only two officers lost their lives, and
these were Of Junior grades. They were
Lieutenant Friend W. Jenkins and AS
sistant Engineer Darwin r. Merritt.
The former was unmarried, but leaves
Il mother and sister. The latter, 1t is
thought, also was unmarried, but the
department was unadvised concerning !
his family.
Senator Perkins, Of California, who
has been navigator all his life and
knows thoroughly every detail in the
construction and handling Of great
ships, said: II cannot conceive that
such an explosion as that which is re-
ported to have wrecked the Maine
could have resulted from an accident
The chances, it seems to me, are 500
in 900 that the calamity did not result
from accident. The ammunition on
warship is fixed ammunition, which Is
not in contact with anything at all
likely to produce an explosion. The
discipline of both officers and men on
the Maine, rs well as on every other
vessel, is such that the explosion could
not have been caused by any action
of any one Of them BY the simple
pressure of an electric button any
on board the vessel could be
instantly submerged, and no fire could
gain such hcadway as to endanRer any
Of the magazines without discovery. 7
That it was due to treachery l am con-
virced."
Senator Mills, of the committee on
foreign relations, said: Il would not
say that the Spanish were responsible
for II, but some one must have been
who had free access to the waters Of
the bay. I do not think 1t could have
been due to an accident"
Mr.. Cummings of New York, a men,
Der of the naval committee. unhesita-
tlngly gave 1t as his opinion that the
ship had been blown up by floating
.orpedo. I.
Senator German. of Maryland: at
'5 a most appalling disaster, but no one
attempts at this distance and before
my facts are given, to place thercspon-
,ibility"
Senator Morrill,: 'Tn my opinion the
occurrence Is the result of an accident. -,
have no idea that any Spanard had n
lnythng whatever to do with IT,"
Representative Newlands, Of Nevada. I
member of the committee on foreign af-
airs, said it would be very hard to
the American people that the
was an accident. :,
General Joseph Wheeler, the ex-Con-
edcrate cavalry commander, now |,
member of the house from Alabama. i
ent the following message to the presi- c
lent: I'm the case of any trouble with =
spain. ramsmhAs that nv tender Of