The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-02-18
STORY OF A SURVIVOR.
Lieutenan9s 3landin Tells OF His Es-
cape From the Wrecked Ship.

4oIlS u ISb~
cape From the Wrecked Ship.
Key West, Fla, Feb. 1S.-Lieuten-
ant John ]. Blandin. of Baltimore,
one of the survivors of the Maine.
who is at the Key West hotel gave
a press correspondent last evening a
succinct account Of the. disaster, say
ing that not until now has he been
able to recollect the sequence of events
in the awful ten minutes following the
explosion Tuesday evening. Lieuten-
ant Blandin was on the Trenton at the
time of the terrible disaster off Sa-
moa, in 1889, when American and Ger
man vessels lost 244 men all told Lieu
tenant Blandin says:
II was on the watch, and when the
men had been piped below l looked
down the main matches and over the
side of the ship. Everything was abb
solutely normal. walked aft to the
quarter deck behind the rear turret, as
is allowed after in the evening, and
sat down on the port side, where re-
mained for few minutes. Then, for
some reason l cannot explain to my
self now, moved to the starboard side
and sat down there. l was feeling
bit gum. and in fact was so quiet that
Lieutenant ]. Hood came up and asked
laughingly If was asleep. l said, No,
! am on watch
Scarcely had I spoken when there
came "a dull, sullen roar. Then came
sharp explosion, some say numerous
detonations. 1 remember only one 1t
seemed to me that the sound came
from the port side forward. Then came
perfect rain of missiles of all de-
scriptions. from huge pieces OF &C.
ment to blocks of wood, steel rallings,
fragments of gratings and all the debris
that would be detachabIe IN an eXplo-
,, eicn.
II was struck on the head by piece
of cement and knocked down, but
was not hurt. and got to my feet in a
moment. Lieutenant Hood had run to
the poop, ard ! supposed, as I followed,
he was daZed by the shock and about
to jump overheard. l hailed him, and
he answered that be had run to the
poop to help lower the boats. When I
got there, though scarcely a minute
could have elapsed. I had to waiitt in
water to my knees, and almost in
stantly the quarter deck was awash.
On the poop found Captain Sigsbee,
2s cool rs if at ball, and soon all the
officers except Jenkins and Merritt join
ed u.s. The poop was above water after
the Maine settled to the bottom. Cap
tain slgshee ordered the launch and gig
lowered, and the officers and men, who
by this time had assembled, got the
boats out and rescued a number in the
T toe,
tenant Commander Wainwright for
ward to see the extent of the damage,
and II anything could be done to res
cue those forward or to extinguish the
flames, which followed close upon the
explosion and burned fiercely as long
as there were any combustibes above
water TO feed them.
Lieutenant Commander Wainwright,
on his return. reported the total and
awful chara cter of the calamity and
Captain Sigsbee gave the last sad order
abandon ship to men overwhslmed
with grief indeed, but calm and appar-
emily unexcited.
Meantime four boats of the Spanish
'crui,ur-41Ironsu All trrrivudi to -br foi-
lowed soon by two from the Ward line
steamer City Of Washington. The two
boats lowered first from the City Of
Washington were found to be rlddled
with flying debris from the Maine, and
unit for use. Captain Slgsbce was the
last man to leave the vessel, and left
in his own gig.
Il have no theories as to the cause of
the explosion. l cannot form any. An
examination by divers may tell some
thing to a court Of inquiry. l, with
others, had heard that the Havana har-
Dor was full of torpedoes, but the Of
ficers whose duty it was to examine
into that reported that they had found
no signs Of any. Personally, l do not
believe the Spanish had anything to do
with the disaster. Time may tell. l
hope so.
I'VE were in delicate position on the
Maine so far as taking any precautions
was concerned. we We're friends in
friendly, or alleged friendly, port. and
could not fire upon or challenge the ap-
proach of any boat boarding us unless
convinced that her intention was hos