The herald., 1898-02-21
NAVAL COURT
Ready to Investigate the
Maine Disaster
WORK TO BEGIN TODAY
ON THE ARRIVAL OF THE COURT
AT HAVANA
SIGSBEE REPORTS PROGRESS
Very Little Can Be Learned Until
Trained Deep Water Divers
Have Done Their Work
Press Special Wire

| Associated Press Special Wire
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.-The naval
| court of inquiry appointed to investigate
the Maine disaster will begin its work at
Havana tomorrow This news came to the
navy department this morning from Ad-
miral Sicard at Key West. He simply tel
egraphed as follows: THE couVt of in
qury sails for Havana Goth by lighthouse
steamer Mangrove. Mark arrived today"
This prompt action is undoubtedly due
to the express direction of Secretary Long
sent yesterday to have the investigation
begin at the earliest possible moment. The
telegram was dated yesterday. so the
board arrived there before nghtfall and
will be ready to begin It's work tomorrow
morning. BY an error incident to the haste
with which the orders were gotten out,
the first accounts placed Lieutenant Com
mander Seaton Schroeder on board as the
third member, while, as a matter of fact,
Lieutenant Commander Pollock, the eX-
ecutive officer of the flagship New York,
holds that place. The board undoubtedly
would have started previously but for the
necessity of awaiting the arrival at Key
West from Washington of Lieutenant
Commander Mark, naval officer well
skilled in the intricacies of marine law
who was to be judge advocate of the cour1.
Capt. Sigsbee was heard from last night
but the telegram was not delivered at the
navy department until this morning. His
message goes to confirm the press reports
of the events of yesterday in Havana har
Dor so far as they relate to the exploration
of the wreck. 1t reads as follows:
HAVANA, Feb. 19.-Only most eXpe-
rienced wrecking divers can do effective
work on the Maine. In the upper works
can use service divers. Did some work to-
day, but with little success. VIII do bet
ter tomorrow. Parts of the Maine, espe-
cially the superstructure and connections
are one confused mass of metal"
Another brief telegram from Capt. Sigs-
bee read:
HAVANA, Feb. 19.-Bache," which
means that the coast survey steamer has
arrived at Havana, bringing on board all
the diving apparatus sent from the squad
ron.
The statement referring TO experienced
divers is explained at the navy department
as no reflection upon the men now engaged
in the work, they being enlisted men be-
longing to the navy. 1t is the practice on
board of men-of-war to assign a few men,
always volunt eers, on account of the haz-
ardous nature of the work, to duty as
divers, in connection with their regular
work. The scope of their work is the ex-
ploration of the ships bottom generally,
the disentanglement of cables from the
propeller shafts and sometimes the search
for a lost torpedo or anchor. Such work
rarely carries them deeper than twenty
five feet in the water, and, it is said, for
operations in deeper water, such as would
be involved in examinations of the Maine
bottom, their training has not fitted them.
They are lacking in that kind of skill nee
essary to enable a diver to grope his way
safely through the interna! parts of a
mighty ship like the Maine, torn and dis
membered as she is, and this work is highly
dangerous. Creeping through iron bound
passages and cropping for the doors of the
watertight bulkheads which divide the
null into compar rtments, on Shiny floors
and in perfect darkness, requires the high
est expert skill, and that is why Cant. |
Sigsbee, with only his sailor divers a
command, has not been able TO do much so
far toward unraveling the mystery of the |
Names untimely end. 1t is to meet just
this emergency that the navy department
is making every effort to hasten the be-
ginning of the work of recovery of the goods |
and perhaps the raising of the huh by
professionals. To that end, Capt. Lemley. |
the judge advocate general of the depart |
ment, was at work today in his office with |
representatives of wrecking companies
trying to draw up contracts for the imme-
diate prosecution of the work. He has |
been at the task now for two days and it |
has not been easy to dispose Of. This is |
owing TO an apparent disposition on the |
part of at least one of the concerns to drive |
d hard bargain, leaving the department in |
the dark as to the amount of money to be |
paid for the services.
1t is believed that the obstacles have now
been surmounted and that the contracts |
can be signed tomorrow. 1t is the purpose |
of Capt. Lemly to hurry this work and to |
that end he is arranging to have two of the |
combine their forces. They |
will be paid on the scale of days work with |
Il provision for bonus if they succeed in |
raising the vessel, thus insuring the recoy-
cry of as much of the valuable equipment |
as possible should it not be possible to float |
the Maine again. Great difficulty is ex-
pected in recovering the big 10-inch turret
guns, each worth $4,000, owing not only
to their own weight, fifty tons apiece with
out carriages, but to the enormous turrets
them with 100 tons of steel. 1t is
if the tops of these turrets can be
as was first supposed, by cutting
off the bolt heads that fix them to the sides
as these large bolts are probably counter
sunk and the holds below the surface of
the metal, while the confined space within
the turrets would make ii very difficult
to operate there on the side ends under
water. 1t is hoped that 1t may be feasible
to raise the turrets entire with the guns
Il lifting apparatus of sufficient power can
be applied.
The newspaper reproductions of photo
graphs taken of the wreck We're studied
With much interest by the naval officers
lere today. Great surprise was expressed
1t the extent of the wreck, and the vast
mass of steel and iron heaped in the for
ward part of the ship was a particular
,bject of attention. The experts who had
irst ventured the theory of a bursting
'oller as the cause of the destruction.
lain to find strong reinforcements in the
'ictures for that belief. The great mass
4 steel appears to be thrown up over the
'oiler space and not over the forward mag
zine, while the forcing apart of the for
ward part of the hull, they say, might have
een accomplished by the enormous ex-
ansive power of the high pressure steam
arried in these boilers, with their shells
more than an inch thick AS to what caused
boiler to explode, whether a disguised
,omb in the coal, low water or faulty con-
truction, they do not now undertake to
ay.
Secretary Long said this afternoon.
lfter looking over his telegraphic and mail
that 1t contained nothing (,
Il Importance beyond the dispatches above
,lven. The secretary referred with satis-
action to the dispatch stating that the S
>o11rt If inquiry would aaseYnhla a TI< xrn !, -