The San Francisco call. [volume], February 18, 1898, Image 1

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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VOLUME LXXXIII.-^uT tm.
A FLOATING TORPEDO
DESTROYED THE MAINE
SEEN BY
A SAILOR
ON BOARD
Came From the Shore
and Struck the
Warship.
Then Was Perpetrated the Atro=
cious Crime for Which Spain
Will Be Held by America
to a Strict Accounting.
Copyrighted 189S by James Gordon Bennett.
KEY WEST, Feb. 18 (3 a. m.)— Gradually
the details connected with the disaster to
the Maine are coming out, and as the facts
become known they point more positively to
the deliberate destruction of the vessel and
the murder of her crew.
I learn to-night on undoubted authority
that one of the maimed sailors who was
taken to the Marine Hospital last night, out of
£rat?tucie for the kind treatment and careful
nursing received from the surgeon and at
tendants, has broken the seal of silence en
joined by his superior officers before leaving
Havana.
He makes a statement, the truth of which
can hardly be doubted, which stamps the
perpetrator of the diabolical tragedy en
acted Tuesday night in the harbor of Havana
as one of the blackest in the history of
humanity.
The sailor, whose name for obvious rea
sons is withheld for the present, says he
was on watch on the forward deck shortly
before the explosion occurred.
While looking over the Maine's bow into
the dark waters of the bay he saw a black
object slowly coming toward the vessel.
The object, whatever it was, was appar
ently illuminated and emitted smoke.
He suspected something wrong and
started to communicate the fact to the offi
cer of the deck, and had barely commenced to
tell what he had seen when the explosion
took place. The Maine was raised in the air
and he was thrown to the deck, stunned and
bleeding.
He also says that simultaneously with,
the raising of the Maine he saw the steam
The San Francisco Call
A VIEW OF THE CITY OF HAVANA.
SAN FRANCISCO, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1898.
The New York and the dishing Are Shown on Their Way to Havana, While the Rest of the Fleet Are at Anchor With Steam Up
Between Dry Tortugas and Key West.
launch which was moored alongside thrown
out of the water.
This occurred before the second explo
sion in the Maine's magazine was felt which
sent her to the bottom.
JACKSONVILLE Fla., Feb. 17.—
A special to the Times-Union and
Citizen from Key West says: The
general opinion of many persons
here is that the Maine was hit by
a torpedo, after which the maga
zine exploded. In an interview
Thomas Melville of Brooklyn,
who was not Injured, and was on
watch on the quarterdeck, said that
he felt two distinct shocks. The
first was not as severe as the second,
which blew up the ship. Other sur
vivors are of the same opinion that
it was foul work.
Martin Riordan, a submarine diver
of Key West and a survivor of the
Maine, has been telegraphed for from
THE AMERICAN FLEET IN FLORIDA WATERS.
Havana by Consul-General Lee and
Captain Sigsbee, and will go over im
mediately to dive under the Maine
and discover the cause of the disaster.
The flagsnip New York is now an
i chored off the bay awaiting instruc
! tions from Washington.
The officers from the Maine who
are here have received instructions
to remain where they are and to
await orders. Many were paid to
day and provided themselves with
clothing.
Patrick J. Foley, in the hospital
here, who was thought to be fatally
hurt, has revived, and late to-night
Dr. Guiteras, who is in charge, says
he will be up in a week or so.
The coast survey steamer A. D.
Bache arrived this afternoon from
the Tortugas in command of Lieuten
ant-Commander Barnet. Early to
morrow morning she will leave for
the cruiser New York, taking divers
and such wrecking gear as is obtain
able.
MR. ROOSEVELT WAS
SOMEWHAT INDISCREET.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17.— Assistant
Secretary Roosevelt has caused the
Navy Department some embarrassment
by his candor. Yesterday he expressed
himself very freely in regard to the
disaster, and made no effort tv conceal
his impression that the explosion was
not accidental.
Several Cabinet officers were discuss
ing Secretary Roosevelt's public ex
pressions this morning and were criti
cizing him. The Assistant Secretary
himself declared that he had been mis
quoted. It is certain that he had a
reckoning with Secretary Long, and
was reticent to-day as a result.
The officers of the Construction Corps
are wincing under the seal of secrecy
imposed on them by the Secretary.
They insist that the Government
should not make its own officials the
scapegoats of the affair by placing the
responsibility of carelessness at their
doors even before an examination has
been made.
The following orders were sent to the
commanding officers of military depart
ments by Adjutant General Breck of
the army:
"As appropriate honors to the de
ceased in the recent disaster to the
battleship Maine, the President directs
that flags at all army headquarters,
military posts and on army buildings
be displayed from sunrise to sunset at
half staff" until further orders."
PROBABLY DONE BY
A HARVEY TORPEDO.
CHICAGO. Feb. 17.— Emil Gathman.
the inventor, believes the Maine was
destroyed by a Harvey torpedo. He is
conversant with Havana harbor, and
from a personal examination is famil
iar with the equipment of the Maine.
In an interview to-day he said that
with the vessel pointing against the
tide, with the night dark and the Maine
not protected by netting, a man could
row a skiff across the bow of the Mainft
at a distance of from 500 to 1000 feet,
towing a Harvey or floating torpedo.
Allowing the tide to drift the torpedo
against the forward end of the Maine
he could explode it by means of electric
wires attached to the fulminating cap.
Mr. Gathman served two years as a
naval apprentice aboard the training
ship Portsmouth when Captain Sigsbee
was her commainding officer. Three
years ago he was a member of the en
gineering corps which conducted the
•econd trial trip of the Maine.
CAPTAIN SIGSBEE
WARNED OF DANGER
BY SOME SPANIARD
A Circular, With a Threat Added,
Which Was Put Into His
Hand in a Crowd.
NEW YORK. Feb. 17.— The Her
ald's Washington correspondent
sends the following: Captain C.
D. Sigsbee, commanding the sec
ond-class battle-ship Maine, was
warned of an impending disaster to
his vessel two weeks before the
catastrophe occurred.
Whether by a singular coincidence, if the
disaster to the vessel should finally turn
out to hare been the result of an accident,
or because of the pity and mercy of one in
the counsel of those responsible for the
vessel's loss, should it have been due to
design, Captain Sigsbee was informed on
Sunday, January 30, that it would be wise
for him to "look out for his ship."
Mrs. Sigsbee. the wife of the Maine's ;
commander, received a letter from her
husband some days ago. in which was in- j
closed a circular, in Spanish, anathematizing
the Americans and the American navy.
On the left edge of the circular, which was
printed on cheap paper, was the rude form j
of a hand, with an index pointing to two
words which were underscored, and which
in English mean "rotten squadron."
At the bottom of the circular were these !
words, in English, written with pen, the
handwriting being fair :
"Look Out for Your Ship."
This is the English translation of the
circular :
"Spaniards — Long live Spain with honor.
"What are ye doing that ye allow your
selves to be insulted in this way 9
"Do ye not see what they hare done to
PRICE FIVE CE^TS.
us in withdrawing our brave and beloved
Weyler, who at this very time would have
finished with this unworthy, rebellious rabble
who are tramping on our flag and our
honor ?
"Autonomy is imposed on us to cast us
aside and give posts of honor and authority
to those who initiated this rebel/ion — thest
ill-born autonomists, ungrateful sons of our
beloved country.
■And finally those Yankee dogs, who med
dle in our affairs, humiliating us to the last
degree, and for a still greater taunt order
to us one of their ships of war of their
rotten squadron, after insulting us in their
newspapers, to our home.
"Spaniards, the moment of action has
arrived. Sleep not. Let us show these
vile traitors that we have not yet lost
shame, and that we know how to protest
with energy befitting a nation worthy and
strong as our Spain is and always will be.
"Death to Americans! Death to au
tonomy! Long live Spain! Long live
Weyler!"
Mrs. Sigsbee told me to-day that she had
inadvertently torn the circular and had
lost the piece which contained the warning
written in English.
"There is the pen stroke," she said,
pointing to a dash of ink at the bottom of
the circular.
"I have searched for the missing portion,
but have up to this time failed to find it."
Mrs. Sigsbee further told me that her
husband had made no mention of the cir-
Continued on Second ?%f. , ..*