The Red Cross has done a grand work on many battlefields in every quarter of the globe, but never has it rendered more efficient aid to suffering humanity than it did on the southern shores of the island of Cuba. On the battlefield, braving the bullets of the foe, in the hospitals, ministering to the wants of the wounded and the dying, among the wretched non-combatants, giving food to the starving, and nursing the fever-stricken refugees, these noble men and women were ever ready to answer to the cry of the needy and the helpless.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE CATASTROPHE TO THE MAINE.
The Board of Inquiry in Session—Its Report Received by Congress
—Spanish Officials in Cuba Show Sympathy—The Evidence of the
Divers—A Submarine Mine—The Officers and Men of the Maine
Exonerated—Responsibility Not Fixed.
The story of the destruction of the battleship Maine has already been told in these pages. The Naval Board appointed to inquire into the causes of the disaster was composed of the following officers of the United States Navy: Captain Sampson, of the Iowa; Captain Chadwick, of the New York; Captain Marix, of the Vermont, and Lieutenant Commander Potter, of the New York.
After an investigation which lasted for more than three weeks, this Board of Inquiry sent its report to President McKinley, who transmitted it to Congress, accompanied by the following message:
To the Congress of the United States:
For some time prior to the visit of the Maine to Havana harbor our consular representatives pointed out the advantages to flow from the visits of national ships to the Cuban waters, in accustoming the people to the presence of our flag as the symbol of good will and of our ships in the fulfillment of the mission of protection to American interests, even though no immediate need therefor might exist.
Accordingly, on the 24th of January last, after conference with the Spanish Minister, in which the renewal of visits of our war vessels to Spanish waters was discussed and accepted, the peninsular authorities at Madrid and Havana were advised of the purpose of this Government to resume friendly naval visits at Cuban ports, and in that view the Maine would forthwith call at the port of Havana. This announcement was received by the Spanish Government with appreciation of the friendly character of the visit of the Maine, and with notification of intention to return the courtesy by sending Spanish ships to the principal ports of the United States. Meanwhile the Maine entered the port of Havana on the 25th of January, her arrival being marked with no special incident besides the exchange of customary salutes and ceremonial visits.
The Maine continued in the harbor of Havana during the three weeks following her arrival. No appreciable excitement attended her stay; on the contrary, a feeling of relief and confidence followed the resumption of the long interrupted friendly intercourse. So noticeable was this immediate effect of her visit that the Consul-General strongly urged that the presence of our ships in Cuban waters should be kept up by retaining the Maine at Havana, or, in the event of her recall, by sending another vessel there to take her place.