El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-02-19
A STATEMENT oF,FAGTs.

=
Wa hinsto 10 Ipsa q Sigsbse and
explosion was In the.forward part OF the
ship and. this is horne out by the e..
C. pc of the majority of the Off ,ars,
whose quarters are aft. aud the 9 heavy
casualties among the crew, sleeping
forward. Prob ably in the latter case
the death list would have been even
larger but forth 9 fact that the M aine,
having a supers ructure forward on
the main deck, q portion of the crew
we're quartered there and SO escaped
the greater violence of explosion as
felt on the berth deck below them
The Maine b ad three mag 8Zines. The
one for ward WAS used for the storage
of ammuH it on, weighing Is 900 pounds.
This quantity of explosives is so larg !,
that tie naval officers here can scarce
ly believe 1t was posi- BILE for any hui
man on board the Maine to have escap-
ed alive had this magazine exploded
entirely. - --- q -oia s7t -
5 There was no smoke!e-s powder on
D ard the ship, and the tsn-inch am
munition was made up of brown prfs-
matte powde-s. Not only Is this p ,wd-
r most car fully packsged in her
medically sealed copper cases, but it's
neat r sisting qualities are SO great
hat it cannot be igni.ed by the flame
of match, elk hundred 4degre 9 Fahr-
eDheit being the amount of heat that
must be applied for some time to SET OF
the powder. On the other hand It is
readily ignited, as in the case of the
charge in a gun, by the explosion
of good quantity of fulminite. Every
precaution is adopted aboard ship to
safeguard the magazine.
IL it's vicinity a sentry stands on
The or, fs1o N
Theoretically except when the ship is
cleared for action. @
At O'Clock every night the temper
AZURE is taken and the keys of the
lock ed doors are p aced in the cap
tt in IS hands for the night. The re-
cords of the navy department show
that 81 degrees was the max mum
temperature in the Names magazine
during the past month, a very low and
safe temperature These facts max e
it extremely d. fficuit to account for
the explosion, par; icularly as no 'visl-
tors are permitted in the magaZlu ne un-
der no circumstances. ct course it
was possible that there was sprn-
taneous com busti n of soma fulmfnite
Of gun cot oa intended for use in
torpe 'eos. There were no steam pipes
or furnaces near enough to the maga-
zine to cause the belief that they ex-
-ploded. 7 - a -
If the bunkers were not entir, ly
empty they undoubtedly contatned
with themselves elements of dang r
that might ccount for the explos1 TN
The depsrtufeH within recent we rs
has been greatly troubled by COM
plains of Spontaneous com bustion of
coal in the ships bunkers, which have
endangered the lives of the ere VS. and
he safety of the ships. The Gin sin
nati twice arleast has been obliged to
flood thrir mag q zines to prevent their
blowing up during fires of this XII d,
and the cruiser Boston has been in the
same condition It some of these
cases shelving in the mag zines which
separate the powder charges have
ben charred by the intense heat
caused by the burning coal in the ad-
jacent bunkers. Although the bunk
ers are inspected under the reguls-
tions at frequen: intervals, SO nuner-
Gus have been these cases of spoot an-
eous com hustion that the navy de-
partment only recently had the spe.
cial board investigate the subject
with view to applying preventive
measures. Unfortunately this board
was prevented from making the thor.
ough iuvest igatiop noces sary b 'cause
no funds were applicable to the pur.
pose. n1-@s.5Sa oi1E- "a" .75iil
Even emp y bunkers have exploded.
In the case Of the Atlanta some yeari
ago, the bunker exploded with great
violence and the only explanation that