The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-29

the cases nattened. Some lids were to
| be found.
| Witness was questioned very closely
as to the plates that he found blown
inward and whether they might not
| have been bulkheads, but he insisted
that they were the outside skin % the
ship near the bottom and located them
accurately on the plans about the mid
die of the 6-inch shell room, where lin
a big circle there is none of the out
side of the ship left at all.
FORWARD TURRET GONE.
He said he had not gone into the 10
inch magazine on the starboard side,
which was buried under a mass of
wreckage. He did not find the forward
turret. but it was missing from the
place where it belonged.
The importance of this testimony
caused it to be gone over and over
again, and additional questions along
the line already indicated were put, but
they only served TO point out more
clearly that abreast of the 6-inch shell
room the whole side of the ship had
disappeared from the harbor bed to
water line and the edges of the rent
were turned inward Further, the 10
inch magazine had not exploded.
HOLE IN THE HARBOR BOTTOM.
He told of three trips down in diving
dress on Feb. 2S. During one of these
he located the break in the keel where
the ships back was broken by the ex-
plosion. He there found a hole in the
bottom of the harbor about seven feet
deep and seven feet in diameter. The
mud bottom of this hole was harder
than elsewhere, and one did not sink
over IS inches in it. In this hole he
found a tin about 20 by 10 inches.
There was a place in it with big
square hole. where a gasket had been,
he said, and l sent it up.
Chief Gunner Charles Morgan, who
was in charge of the divers. corrobor-
ated Smith in almost every particular.
Naval Constructor ]. r. Hoover APP
peared as a witness on March s. His
testimony was very technical, describ-
ing the various parts of the ship by
number of frame and section. Summed
up, it was that the bottom plates of the
ship at the point Of explosion, the
berth deck over them and protected
deck had been turned over and forward,
revolving through an angle OF 80 de-
grees. The six-inch magazine was just
below the pieces of the deck as they
originally stood
DIVER OLSEN.
Chief Gunner's Mate Olsen of. the
United States steamship Iowa, told
how he had been sent to Havana for
the purpose of doing diving duty on
the wreck. He had descended four
times, making about eight or nine
hours of total examination. Olsen told
how on his first descent he went over
the forward part of the ship. To use
his own expression. he said; Il found
the wreck all blowed up. I found a
lot Of CRATE bars down there"
The second time he went down fur
Their forward and there located a lot
of ten-inch shells Forward of these
the plates were bent inboard over
them.
Asked if he had imagined himself
looking forward, he stated that he did.
Going over the plates, he struck into
a lot Of six-inch shells with the sings
on them. Going to the right, witness
stated he found a lot of wreckage. 1t
seemed to have been blown over the
starboard. Olsen stated that he put
his hands into the cracks and brought
out several six-pounder shells.
The next. time he went down, Olsen
testified. he went outside the ship for
ward of the crane, on the port side
He followed the bottom along and
found that the ships side was blown
nutboard alongside the crane. 1t could
be walked on.
AT the part where she was blown
up completely" witness said, part of
her bottom plates were turned up.
Then you follow the bottom from there
up, and the plates are blown cupboard /
At the top and underneath the bottom
they are blown inboard and bent in /.
About three feet forward of that spot
there was a piece of iron laid along ]
the bulkhead. The skin of the inside
of the double bottoms is curled like a
sheet Of paper inboard from stem to
stern.
"Amidships on the same place there
is an arnor plate. one plate complete, (
the top of the plate standing up. The 4
plate is inclined over the starboard I
1t stands up. with the (
thick part of the plate down. 1t is in /
clined forward and over to starboard.