[Inclosure in Spanish minister’s note
of March 28, 1898.–Translation.]
Extract from the Report of the Spanish
Commission on the Maine Catastrophe.
The report contains the depositions of eye witnesses and experts,
and, by reproducing, by means of these depositions, the act of
explosion, at each moment of its duration, in its external
appearances, proves the absence of all the incidents which always
necessarily accompany the explosion of a torpedo.
It is known, through these same depositions of witnesses very near
the Maine, that there was only a single
explosion; that no column of water was thrown up; that there was no
movement of the water; that there was no dash of the water against
the sides of the nearest vessel; that there was no shaking of the
shore, and that no dead fish were seen subsequently. The deposition
of the chief pilot of the port’ shows that there was a great
abundance of fish in the bay after the explosion, and the same thing
is asserted by the assistant engineer of the harbor works, who says
that he has always found dead fish after many explosions (blastings)
made for the works in the bay.
The divers, when examining the hull of the Maine, could not see its bottom, as it was buried in the
mud, but they examined the sides, and the rents in them outwards are
an infallible sign that the explosion was internal.
When the bottom of the bay around the vessel was examined not a
single sign of the action of a torpedo was found, and, moreover, the
district attorney (fiscal) finds no precedents of the blowing up of
the magazines of a vessel by torpedoes in any case.
The report states that the peculiar nature of the procedure followed
and the thorough observance of the principle of the
extraterritoriality of the Maine have
prevented the making such investigations in the interior of the
vessel as would furnish
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the means of deciding, at least hypothetically, the internal cause
of the disaster; and this inability was increased by the unfortunate
refusal which prevented the establishment of the necessary and
appropriate cooperation between the Spanish commission on the one
side, and the commander and crew of the Maine, the American officials commissioned to investigate the
causes of the event, and those subsequently charged with the
recovery (salvamento) on the other side.
Lastly, the report affirms that the internal and external examination
of the Maine, when it can be accomplished,
and provided the labors for the total or partial recovery of the
wreck do not cause any change in it, and the examination of the spot
in the bay where the vessel is sunk, will prove that, as has been
said, the explosion was produced by an internal cause.
A true copy:
