Blowing up of the U. S. S. Maine in Havana Harbor.
The ship went down very soon, bow first, and many of the crew were drowned in their quarters; the officers succeeded in getting three boats into the water, both captain and crew acting in the coolest and bravest manner conceivable.
Immediately after the explosion, the Spanish warship Alfonso XII. and the passenger steamers in the harbor lowered boats and all that was possible was done to save the few victims of the explosion scattered over the waters.
Captain Sigsbee, who commanded the Maine, telegraphed to the Secretary of the Navy: “Maine blown up in Havana harbor 9.40, and destroyed. Many wounded and doubtless more killed and drowned. Wounded and others on board Spanish man-of-war and Ward Line steamer. Send lighthouse tender from Key West for crew and few pieces of equipment still above water. No one had clothes other than those upon him.”
The news of the disaster was spread broadcast over the length and breadth of the land.
The Maine was a battleship of the second class, and was regarded as one of the best ships in the new navy. She was built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and was 318 feet long, 57 feet broad, 21.6 feet mean draught, and 6682 tons displacement.
She had two ten-inch vertical turrets and two military masts, and her motive power was furnished by twin screw vertical expansion engines, having a maximum horse-power of 9293, capable of making a speed of 17.45 knots. She carried four ten-inch and six six-inch breech-loading guns in her main battery and seven six-pounders and eight one-pound rapid-fire guns and four Gatlings in her secondary battery, and four Whitehead torpedoes.
The officers of the Maine were: Captain, Charles D. Sigsbee, commanding; Lieutenant-Commander, Richard Wainwright; Lieutenants, George F. W. Holman, John Hood, and Carl W. Jungen; Lieutenants (junior grade), George P. Blow, John G. Blandin, and Friend W. Jenkins; Naval Cadets, Jonas H. Holden, Walt T. Cluverius, Amon Bronson, and David F. Boyd, Jr.; Surgeon, Lucien G. Heneberger; Paymaster, Charles W. Littlefield; Chief Engineer, Charles P. Howell; Passed Assistant Engineer, Frederick C. Bowers; Assistant Engineers, John R. Morris and Darwin R. Merritt; Naval Cadets (engineer division), Pope, Washington, and Crenshaw; Chaplain, John P. Chidwick; First Lieutenant of Marines, Albertus W. Catlin; Boatswain, Francis E. Larkin; Gunner, Joseph Hill; Carpenter, George Helms.
Upon receipt of Captain Sigsbee’s telegram, Secretary Long sent orders to the lighthouse tenders at Key West to proceed at once to Havana. Their orders were in plain language, thus avoiding the delay that would have arisen from the use of cipher.
Divers were also sent from the United States to Havana, and on the Sunday following brought up Captain Sigsbee’s money, papers, and keys. The only question which arose between the Spanish and American authorities was in regard to the right of the former to send divers down to investigate the condition of the ship; and that was promptly settled by an amicable arrangement that American divers should first do what was possible in the way of interior examination and salvage, and that Spanish divers should then be permitted to join them in the work outside the vessel.