Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1898-03-18
THE HOLE N THE MAINE
Everything Points to an
External Explosion.
THE VIEWS OF AN EXPERT
Captain Perars Arguments Refuted-
Spanish Divers Method of Work
The Court of Inquiry.

Captain Peraps Arguments heIuteu-
Spanish Divers Method of Work
The Court of Inquiry.
Havana, March 15.-It is impossible
to send direct from Havana anything
in refutation of Captain Peral's state
ment of yesterday regarding the views
of the Spanish board of inquiry on
the Maine disaster. However, an
American expert says in effect, and
his words are worthy of weight, as he
knows absolutely Of what he is talking:
81 am a graduate of the torpedo
school and have studied the effects of
torepdos and mines from observation
and experiments. A torpedo exploded
at depth of six feet would throw
column Of water 100 feet into the air;
at IL feet, 10 feet in the air, and at 30
feet, would hardly raise small wave.
A detonator of gun cotton in the open
air makes a mark of its own size in
steel, or blows stone into fragments.
In the water, a torpedo itself woGld not
be felt at any distance. 1t requires
the resistance OF a solid body, and
would be dissipated in water or mud.
This disposes of the wave theory and
the affecting of shore or boats in the
harbor."
As to the hole in the Maine, the ex-
pert in question makes the most i'm
portant statement that the Maine drew
% to 30 feet at the time of the expo-
sion, and had about 10 feet of water
below her bottom. On the port side,
where the United States divers are
now at work, there is at present 81
feet of water. May this not be the
hole which Captain Peral says could
not be found? ii it was, the hole was
more than seven feet deep when the
explosion took place, and had greatly
filled since.
As to the finding of dead fish, the
court OF inquiry has not seen a solitary
fish since work began on the wreck.
The bodies recovered from the Maine
have not been touched by fishes. Some
of the fishermen in Havana testified
that there were no fish inside the har-
Dor, the waters being too foul for them.
Further, as to the alleged discoveries
OF Spanish divers reported to Captain
Peral, five American divers have been
working on the port side of the wreck
on an average OF seven hours per day
each for nearly three weeks, in space
90 feet long and 20 feet wide. The
Spanish divers have never been inside
the wreck at all, neither have they
ever been on the port side, devoting
the short hours which they spent un-
der water to the starboard and forward
parts and outside the hull.
Recently, to their own surprise, they
brought up two cans of ammunition for
the six-inch guns, not exploded. They
dropped them back when the light OF
the surface showed that they were un-
exploded and what their nature was.
The Spanish divers often go down
only long enough to wet their suits,
and then come up and hide behind a
blanket on the barge, where they sleep
or rest for couple of hours, and then
go ashore and report that they cannot
see anything in the mud and water.
They could not have found the ram OF
the Maine. since they have not been
down in the locality of that part of the
werck. They have not located the tur.
ret with the l0-inch guns, though the
spot has been pointed out by Captain
Sharp, of the wreckers. All of these
facts are known by the United States
court OF inquiry, having been ELECTED
by the testimony of persons who know
The expert interviewed by the CORE
spondent expresses the belief that til,
Maine was blown up by what is know
as a Newport torpedo, a stationar,
torpedo, or something OF the same ma
ture. This engine of destruction il
the joint production of the labors o
Commander Converse, commander o
the Montgomery; Com
mander Mclean, now in command o
the torpedo station at Newport, an,
Lieutenant Holman, ordnance office
of the Maine at the time of the eX
plosion. The Newport torpedo can b
planted from a small boat, and the ex
pert believes that this one was explod
ed by being struck on the port of tn
Maine forward of amidships as sh
swung at her moorings. He think
this more likely than that wires wer
, laid from shore, rs the wires, il lai
for any length, would sink deep in tn
, harbor mud.
1t would be singular il it shoul
= prove that the Maine was blown Il
, by torpedo in the invention of whicI
one of her principal officers, Lieutenan
Holman, bore notable part.
All the foregoing statements cam
E from the authority on which the cour
depended for much of its evidence. an
is given to the correspondent withou
reservation, except as to the name an