The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1898-03-23

/ ththS 1Ocs 10 SHOW mat Out One
Decision Can be Reached and that
is thnt the Ship was Flown up by a
Mine--Shoufd This be Accepted as
True There viii Most Likely be
War.
A very interesting thing about
the investigation that the board of
inquiry is making of the Maine al
fair has come to light 1t is partic-
ularly interesting to people living
here as great many of them are
acquainted with Commander Chad
wick one member of the board. He
has dissented from the opinion of
the rest of the board and the inves-
tigation has been steadily made to
overcome objections advanced by
him. He firmly held the position
that the disaster could not have been
caused by an external explosion but
that the destructive force originated
on board ship. He wanted to put
the best face possible on the affair
and to give Spain the benefit of ey-
cry doubt.
The report of the board has been
forwarded to Washington and will
be in the hands of the president in
a day or So Whether he will give
it out for publication remains to be
seen. However it is pretty well
known what part of the report will
be. 1t will state that the explosion
came from without and that the
force was so great that only sub
marine mine could have caused it.
No torpedo could have wrecked the
ship as the explosion did.
As was stated in the first part of
this article:
Captain Chadwick was under the
impression that the Maine was
blown up by accident, and it was
not until after several weeks of hard
work on the part of the divers and
experts that he was convinced of the
contrary.
First of all, he insisted that the
six and ten-inch powder magazine
had exploded, but the divers went
down and brought up the powder.
The court took up the theory that
the explosion was caused by the
heating of the coal. The divers found
that the coal was in perfect shape.
Finally, the theory that the boil
ers exploded was advanced, but the
divers proved this to be false.
At this time came the discovery
of Ensign Powelson. He found the
Names keel and bottom plates on
the upper decks, and produced them
as absolute proof that nothing but
and underblow could have caused
the disaster. This was accepted by
the court as f1ality, and since that
time its efforts nave been devoted to
discovering the cause of the explo-
sion itself.
The force of the explosion was so
terrific that it is clear that nothing
but submarine mine could have
! produced it. The board will also
report that the armor- piercing shells
were found intact.
Its last work was the examination
of the woodwork of the vessel, the
powder tanks and its shell ROOM
Having received reports from divers
on these subjects the court returned
to Key West, where it has been pre-
pairing its report for the last few
days, and from which point an alb
stract, it is understood, has been
forwarded to Washington.
In addition to the cause of this
explosion it is now known that the
Maine was anchored in place
where no other vessel had been
placed for months and directly over
a submarine mine. When the wind
and tide carried the illfated ship
over the right spot the mine was
fired and the vessel went down with
several hundred sleeping sailors to
sudden death. OF course it is not
known and probably will never be
known who fired the mine but it is
certain that it was fired. Havana
was friendly port. There was no
state OF war existing between Spain
and the United States and the form
er must be responsible for the disas-
ter There seems to be but one So
luton of the present state of affairs
and that is war. This is truly a
most horrible contingency but it is
much closer than many people seem
to think. With things in the shape
that there is every reason to believe
they are there is but one thing to
do and that is to avenge to the ut
most the most dastardly crime in
the history of nations. Let us hope
that the advance reports of the re-
suit of the investigation are I'M
founded and that war with all its
grisly horrors may he avoided.