Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-29

On his next descent, he went down
from the port crane, following the side
of the ship down until he struck plates
| that were blown from port to starboard
| in-board.
The forward part of the six-inch re-
serve magazine seemed to him to have
| been blown away altogether The diver
| came across q lot Of six-pounder shells
and shell cases, some of them not even
broken away from the shells. Lying
across the middle Of the 10-inch shell
rec m he found an arInor plate that had
been torn away from the ships side.
| On the fifth day, Gunner's Mate Smith
told Of three trips down in diving dress
on Feb. %. During one OF these, he
located the break In the keel where the
ships back was broken by the explosion.
| He there found a hole in the bottom
Of the harbor about seven feet deep
and seven feet in diameter. The mud
| in the bottom Of this hole was harder
than elsewhere, and one did not sink
over Is inches in It. In this hole he
found tin about 20 by 10 inches There
was place in it with big, square hole
where gasket had been, he said And
sent it up to Mr. Powelson. He did
not find the forward turret, but it was
missing from the place where it be-
| longed. The Importance of this testi-
mony caused 1t to be gone over and over
again. They served to point out more
| clearly that abreast Of the six-inch shell
room, the whole side of the ship had dis
appeared from the harbor bed to water
| line, and the edges of the rent were
| turned inward.
Further, the 1O-inch magazine had not
exploded.
| Gunner's Mate Rindquist, one of the
divers, said he went down in the after
part OF the 10-inch magazine and found
/ q Icf ~ yy1t1fxy MT
| dozens of them with pieces blown in all
| directions. They did not look as IL they
! had exploded by charge inside It
| looked as IL a pressure from the outside
had opened them up.
GUNNER's MATE OLSEN.
Chief Gunnerss Mate Olsen Of the I'M
tied States ship Iowa, sent to Havana
for the purpose of doing diving duty
on the wreck, said 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 shdp.
| To use his own expression, he said:
| II found the wreck all blowed up.
4 found lot of CRATE bars down there"
On another occasion Olsen testified that
he followed the bottom along onthe port
side and found that the ships side was
blown out board, and alongside the
crane 1t could be walked on.
| "At the part where she is blown up
| completely" the witness said, part of
her bottom plates are turned up, Then
| you follow the bottom from there up
and the plates are blown outward"
Amidships on the same place Olsen
found one plate complete, the top Of
| the plate standing up. Below this ar
NOR plate Olsen found everything COM
pletely blown away. There is moth
ing but the bare bottom OF the harbor
mud he said.
Olsen, on his REORGANIZATION, stated
that the ram plate, which he could feel,
was fastened on the bow of the ship,
| He said that he could feel the bottom
of the ship forward for ten frame
spaces, but at frame 81 he found her
to be cut Off entirely.
COMMANDER q. A. CONVERSE.
On the 25th day Commander G. A.
Converse Of the navy testified that he
had made study of the nature and eff
fects of explosives. Being shown. a
blue print of the forward magazine and
shell room of the Maine, and asked if
one OF more of those should explode or
partly explode, it would lift the forward
part of the ship partly OUT OF the water
he replied that he did not think it
would.
i He was asked what his experience
was in the case Of the explosion of sub
marine mines; as to what became of the
mine. He replied that they were al
most invariably disrupted and lost,
blown up and pieces of them were rare
ly found.
When asked if a submarine mine ex-
ploded under the bottom of ship and
containing enough explosive to COM
pletely destroy that part of the ship
would be similarly demolished, he re-
piled that the violent explosive would
cut a hole in the ship, blowing out the
| part that was cut in small fragments.
He was of opinion that the bending of
| the plates on the bottom of the Maine
| could be produced by the explosion Of a
submarine mine containing a large
amount of the lower explosives, gun
powder or similar, not in contact with
| the ship, but some distance below it,
perhaps on the bottom Continuing, he
said that he had never in his experience
seen any interior explosion that was pos
sible to produce the effect upon the
| Maine.
"Do you think that necessarily there
must have been an underwater mine
to produce these explosions?"
Indications are that an underwater
explosion produced the conditions there"
ment regarding the impossibillty, in his
| opinion. Of an internal explosion caus-
| ing the Names wreck. His testimony
was closed
GUNNER MORGAN
| Chief Gunner Charles Morgan, who
was in charge of the divers, testified
that on going down in diving dress, he
| landed in a mass OF silt and broken
powder tanks of six and ten inch ammu-
nition He found what he thought was
| the ceiling and sides of the magazine.
The powder tanks were split and
crushed, some with the heads knocked
| off, and most Of them empty There
were 20 or 25 in all. They did not
seem to have exploded, but having been
crushed open, the powder had melted
out by the action of the water The
hold at this point was open to the out
| side of the harbor, and, walking to the
engine, he fell off in what seemed to
have been the same hole in the mud
| described by Smith,
CHAPLAIN CHIDwICK.
Chaplain John P Chadwick of the
| Maine was In his room on board the
night of the occurrence He said: Il
heard a loud report, and everything at
once became dark. The lights went
out and there was a crashing sound OF
| things failing. I rushed on deck and
got to the captains poop. where ] saw
the captain giving his orders After
trying to cheer up the men,
was ordered by Lieut.. Jungen to go into
a boat, which I did. He rowed around
the ship and picked up one man. Then
at the orders of the captain we pulled
for the City of Washington"
Asked how many shocks ne felt wit