The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1911-08-22
THE MAINE. A CHASTITY SIGHT,

The battleship at the bottom of
the harbor of Havana is a mystery
and mass of contradictions. For
one thing, the bow of the ship now
points towards the stern, II was
blown Off, turned end for end, and
settled in a reversed position. For
another thing. objects one would
have supposed might easily have
survived up to the present moment
have persisted. while other objects
for more fragile have been discoy-
cred intact Swords arc fond TO he
50 rusted that they fall to pieces in
your hand; while box will furnish
bands so elastic and perfectly pre-
served that they appear to be even
better than new ones. The finest
steel in the structure is now rotten,
while shoes and caps come forth
practically unchanged and unin-
jured. Again, the after part--say
one-third OF the vessels, relative
ly speaking. intact, while the fore
part is tangled mass of metallic
bars and beams, interspersed with
unidentified objects in wild confus-
ion. No progress could be made in
exploration until an yygen-acetyl-
enc apparatus was employed to cut
through this tangle and open way
for the exploring engineers. And
lastly. while the water OF the har-
Dor had been considered the chief
obstacle in the way of examination
Ii is now seen that the black, sticky
stenchful mud is ten times worse
About thirty feet of water was
out, leaving nothing but
mud within the walls of the Golfer
dam But this filth is like glue, and
powerful hydraulic pumps seem un-
able to overcome its clinging and
strangely adhesive quality Six
months were required to get rid of
the water. The engineers will be
happy If within another six months
they can rid the structure of mud
The subject is not a pleasant
topic, but the battleship was sub
merged in unspeakable filth, the
harbor being at that time the cess
pool for Havanas sewage 1t had
long been recognized as unsafe to
anchor in the harbor, because the
anchor when drawn up brought up
IN the deck such mass of sludge
as menaced the health of the ships
crew. The Maine, in fact, like all
other ships, was not anchored, but
moored to buoys After American
occupation steps were taken to
cleanse the harbor, and independent
Cuba carried on the work, so that to.
day its waters are less contaminated
and purer. But il was thirteer
years ago that the good ship went
down, and many years prior to the
cleansing process,
The bodies of all the officers were
recovered soon after the disaster
with the one exception--that OF
Darwin Merritt, the assistant engi-
neer. 1t is queer that, while the
present explorers have come upon
multitude of human bones, the
skeleton of this officer was the only
perfect one discovered so far. Its
identification was complete, being
supplied by ring upon the fleshless
finger of one hand In such way
this ring was stolen and became the
property of a newspaper man at Ha-
vana. To his lasting credit, be IT
said, the ring was returned to the
engineers in the harbor and will, no
doubt, be restored at length to the
relatives of Darwin In Iowa.
These are strange facts. first and
last, and are perfectly in keeping
with the mystery of the Names de-
struction--a problem apparently no
nearer solution today than it was
thirteen years ago.-Courier- Jour
nal.