| Show WAN A OOUIOX EXPLOSION Monolith llltlillp Caught Like Hat In a Trap New York Feb IGA special copyright copy-right cable to the Evening World from Havana says the olllcers of the Maine state the explosion was In the central expolon mogalne and that the Maine was raised out of the water and then went partially to pieces The dispatch can tlnues I All the officers but the surgeon were In the ward rom at the moment of the explosion Then came the slu iwndous shock All the olllcers below rushed on deck but could get no further fur-ther than Ihe middle supcrslructurc on deck Only a very pitiable few of the SBi of the Jack tars got from below The water rushed over them and many mere stunned and drowned but not mangled 1 Is I not likely that more than forty sailors were saved The olll wrs on deck narrowly I escaped In the Junior officers mesa hall all had to clamber out In wreckage waist deep One ladder from the after torpedo compartment man jammed wih men struggling up for life All agree that a double explosion occurred from the natural result or an underwater explosion or the magazines The dispatch says that the account of the passengers on the Ward Linn steamer City of Washington which was lying 300 yards from the Maine bears out the foregoing statement Continuing Con-tinuing the cable Pays Ilrnss pipe angle Iron etc fell Inn In-n shower on the dcciv of the City of Washington so Injurlr Iwo boats that when lowered they were useless Out or the den smoke crime anguished crlc for help Simultaneously with the oton 01 falling fragments searchlights were thrown on the wreck and lights of agony Spanish boats from the shore Joined those of the Washington Washing-ton lonllde at once but the regular ferry boats passing soon after the explosion ex-plosion did not stop to offer aid |
