Gloucester County Democrat., 1898-03-03
INVESTIGATORS REPORT
Guesses as to the Verdict on the
Maine Disaster.
A FLOATING SUBMARINE MINE,

It Is Believed by Naval oncers at
Havana aud Key West, Caused the
Awful Observation-Disclosures the Re-
suit of Ignorance or Carelessness.
Havana, via Key West, March 3d.
Without adding unnecessarily to the
food of surmise, conjecture and proph-
ecy concerning the finding of the court
of inquiry, it is fair to say that, as a
matter of fact, most of the naval Of
ficers here and at Key West incline to
the opinion that the court will find
that the disaster to the Maine was
caused by the explosion of a floating
submarine mine under the port side
of the ship, forward of amidships.
Opinions differ as to whether this
mine was made of high explosives,
such as wet and dry gun cotton, or
ordinary gunpowder. Opinions agree,
not only as to the existence of mines
in the harbor, but also that this one
was laid purposely near the buoy
where foreign war vessels were di-
rected to moor, and was fired by a
flash from an electric battery on shore.
1t is believed rarely possible that the
explosion of the mine was the result
Of carelessness or ignorance of Spanish
officers in charge of the mine station
keys when testing the circuit, but the
latter supposition is not felt to be
probable. 1t is further regarded as
settled by the evidence before the court
that the port side of the hull forward
was completely blown to pieces, and
that the only explosion on the Maine,
except of isolated cases of fixed am
munition, was that of 1000 pounds of
saluting powder stored forward, and
of which no trace can be found.
These views are gathered from Of
ficers, who talk with great reserve, and
only upon the assurance that their
identity will never be revealed. The
fact remains that only the members
of the court of inquiry know all the
testimony ELECTED, and no one is au-
thorized to make public the opinion of
members in advance of the final judg-
ment.
A good deal of surprise was express
ed by Americans here on learning that
Spanish divers were to be permitted to
make an examination of the wreck of
the Maine, especially as it was also
said that the American naval officers
here would give such divers all con-
sistent facilities and would throw no
obstacles in the way of thorough sub
marine inspection. 1t was not at first
understood, as it came to be later, that
the Spanish search was to be en-
tirely independent, and that while it
was being made the American investi-
cation would proceed under Captain
Sigsbee's supervision. AS understood
here, the Spanish request made i'm
mediately after the disaster for joint
investigation was promptly refused at
Washington, but after a cabinet con-
sultation it was agreed that the Span
iards had a moral and international
right to discover the cause of the
wreck for themselves if possible. There
fore, permission for an independent
examination was granted on the
ground, as understood here, that it
could not be refused to friendly
power in her own harbor. That the
permission was not accorded until af-
ter the court of inquiry had finished
its work here and gone to Key West
is regarded as significant. It opens
a wide field for speculation.
Some assert that the court now has
no objection to a Spanish inquiry for
one of two reasons: Either the court
has sufficient evidence already of ac-
cident or malice-evidence that can
not be controverted by the Spaniards-
or after diligent search the mystery
remains as deep as ever, and the court
does not think the Spanish will reach
a conclusion where the Americans
have failed.