Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1911-09-30
THE MAINE"

Tuesdays reports from Havana
detailing disclosures made around
and inside of the hull of the battle
ship Maine now that the water has
been pumped out of the cofferdam
and the mud has been cleared away
are, of course, unofficial But they
come from eye-witnesses of the
wreck and the work going on all
about it and have been made under
the direction of and have the sup
port of men who can fairly be called
experts in the matter of submarine
explosions; and the facts set forth
ought to convince a reasonable
unprejudiced, open mind that the
destruction of the Maine was by
an exterior explosion.
Briefly, the double bottom of the
ship has a part of her keel stand
ing in a perpendicular position about
tWenty-eight feet higher than the
natural position, the hull has been
broken into two parts, one section
including the heavy conning-tow
having been thrown aft toward the
stern, and the settling OF the tower
to the main deck has brought it to
the opposite side of the ship to that
on which the explosion took place;
other portions Of the superstructu
were thrwn forward, falling upon
the forward deck; and the position
OF the lowest or platform deck, in
an upheaved mass above the sub
merged bow, indicates that what is
now the highest point originally
and structurally occupied a position
at about frame number eighteen of
the hull
This suggests" says the Sun cor
respondent, that there was an ex-
plosion of a mine under that part
OF the ship, say about midway be-
tween the stem and the midship sec
ticn, ii is a confirmed belief that
such tearing of the ships bot
tom could not have been produced
by an interior explosion 1t is fur
Their said that no regulation military
mine could have wrought such terri
fic havoc. 1t must have been a
huge mine, as, Captain Sigsbee and
Others suggested at the time, per-
haps a sugar-mill boiler or a large
cask loaded with explosives.
There will naturally be naval and
military authorities who will refuse
to accept these conclusions without
the backing of official reports set
ting forth the disclosures made by
the uncoyering of the warship's hull
in the most minute detail possible.
And even then the most conselya-
tive authorities may be found still
holding fast to the opinion tFo
nothing has been proved nothing
ever can be proved The orc
mass of the American people. how
ever, and of unbiased foreigners will
be prepared by these latest dis
closures to set it down as beyond
further conjecture that the Maine
was not destroyed by an interior ex
plosion and could not have been
as the hull now tells the awful
story.
But the present situation viii
raise another highly interesting
question for the naval sayants and
that portion of the lay population
which delights in the solution of
problems
How was it possible for mine
as large and as difficult of han
ding as a sugar-mill boiler or
molasses cask to have been planted
under the forward part of the bat
tleship Names bottom without at
tracing any attention at all aboard
snip and apparently none on shore
especially as the wire or other
device for exploding it had to be
carried away to a point of perfect
safety somewhere? Is it possible or
thinkable that enemies of the United
States engaged in the plot voluntar-
lily sacrificed their own lives in or
der to make the Job a successful
one?
All kinds of ruling and binding