Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-02-21

main section" was employed to tell
him the name of the vessel that had
been ordered to Havana, otherwise the
Maine.
Directly across the hall was the
room of the former Confederate gen.
eral, Fitz Hugh Lee, then United
States consul general to Havana.
Impossible" Gen. Lee, replied, "the
government would never send a war;
ship here unless / asked for one and
that 1 have not done"
At that moment came the thud of
guns. Hurrying to the balcony the
two saw the Maine entering the har-
bor and bulbs, of white smoke drift
ing from her saluting battery,
The Facts Considered.
AS a newspaper correspondent who
reported the blowing up of the Maine
and as one who rerna ed in Havana
during the sitting of the American
naval court of inquiry. body whose
verdict was that the Maine had been
destroyed as the result of an outside
explosion. I have frequently been ask
ed my opinion as to the cause. 90
That the court of inquiry was con-
vinced the Maine had been blown up
by a mine planted by the Spaniards in
Havana harbor, have never, for a
moment doubted. That they did not
say so in as many words was doubt
less due to reasons other than those
contained in the facts which they con-
sidered. Here they are:
The relations between America and
Spain had been strained to the break
ing point. 1t was at this moment Of
severe tension that an American bat
tleship entered the hprbor. at her
anchorage inside the harbor she COM
manded the entire situation, there not
being q single Spanish gun that could
be brought to bear against her, all OF
these being in the batteries that over
looked the sea approaches. -
A Spanish pilot brought the Maine
into harbor and designated the buoy
to which she was to make fast. IT.,
under the circumstances the Spaniards
had not laid mine under that pre-
determined bouy in order to dominate
any foreign warship making fast to It,
they would have been incredibly short
sighted. ,e
There has been much talk of an in
side explosion. But the keel of the
Maine was found within eighteen in
ches of the surface. No inside ex-
plosion could have driven that, part of
the underbody upwards.
Some Unwritten History.
The reference to the finding of the
Names keel so near the surface Of
the water recalls another hit iof un-
| written history. .gii'.
On the heels of the disaster, ,all cor
respondents stationed in Havana be-
gan receiving more or less frantic ca
bles from their home offices telling
how imperative 1t was for the fkmcri-
can public to be informed at once
whether the Maine had been blown
| up by d Spanish, mine. or whether, as
Spain was contending, she had come
to her undoing through the explosion
of one of her own magazines.
Day by day these messages became
more urgent. But what were the cor
respondents to do? Pending the ar
rival of the American naval court, the
Spaniards had established a Gordon
| around the wreck and no one was al
lowed near it. The court of inquiry,
headed by the late Rear Admiral
Sampson, arrived on the lighthouse
tender Fern, and began its hearings
on board that vessel But that did
not help the .harried correspondents,
none of whom were allowed on board.
There were no risks the correspondents
would not have ventured to have OBJ
tanned some inkling of the case. But
they were confronted with obstacles
impossible to overcome.
Such was the situation when there
came one night a hurried knock on
my hotel door, the hour being about
10 o'clock. Even after the lapse Of all
these years l do not feel free to re-
veal the name Of this caller. But /
may say that he was an officer at
tached to the flagship New York and
that he had been sent from Key West
to superintend the work of the divers
engaged in examining the wreck. /
had been shipmates with this officer
before leaving the navy to take up
newspaper work, and we were warm
friends. AS he hurried into the room
l saw he was intensely excited. He
first swore me to secrecy, exacted a
promise that ! would not reveal the
source of my information and then
without more ado, told in one breath
what all the world was on tiptoe to
know. f.. ,,
1.-The keel OF the Maine" he said
stepping to the door and closing it,
and speaking low and fast, sis within
eighteen inches of the surface. We
found it there tonight. Mr.. Powell
son was with me and he has positive
ly identified the keel plates"
Wilfred Van Ness PoWelson was
ona of the constructors who had built.