Young Peoples' History of the War with Spain. Prescott Holmes
I have told you. Spain made no objections to this plan, and said she would send a ship in return to visit New York. The ship chosen from our navy was the Maine, commanded by Captain Sigsbee. On January 25th, early in the morning of a bright warm day, the Maine, with all her colors flying, and with all her men dressed in their best clothes, drew near the harbor of Havana. A Spanish pilot went out to meet her, took her carefully through the narrow entrance to the fine harbor, and anchored her near some other ships. Though the entrance is narrow, yet the harbor itself is large enough to accommodate a thousand ships. The entrance is guarded by several fortresses, one of which, called "Morro Castle," is nearly three hundred years old. It stands on a high point of land, and for this reason is called "Morro," a name that means in Spanish, headland, or promontory.
No doubt the place seemed very attractive to the men on board the Maine that bright sunny morning. The new part of Havana is pretty, the old part is quaint and interesting. There are a number of famous buildings, one of which is the Cathedral, where the remains of Columbus were treasured at that time, but they have since been removed to Spain. All the buildings are low, for low buildings are the fashion in countries that are subject to earthquakes; they are built of stone, and generally adorned with bright colors. There are wide avenues, and large parks and gardens.
If you should visit Havana, you would see many curious sights. All the houses, hotels and stores have iron-barred windows, which gives one the impression that the inmates are confined there. Many houses have large gates which open into beautiful gardens and court yards. Some of the streets have very funny names, such as "Ladies' Delight," and "Fat Stick," when the Spanish names are translated into our language; and they have bright-colored awnings stretched across, from side to side.
The fish market is one of the most noted buildings in the city. It has one long marble table running the entire length of the building, which has one end open to the harbor. Poultry and fruits are brought to the doors of the houses in baskets which are carried on donkeys or the little horses of the country. Often you can see what looks like a large bunch of grass, slowly moving over the pavements, but as it gets nearer you will see the head of a donkey sticking out of one side, while his tail alone is visible on the other side. This is the way that food for horses and mules is brought into the city; no hay is used, only green feed. The milkman does not call at the house, as with us, but instead drives his cow up to the door and supplies you direct from her with as much milk as you wish to buy. Charcoal is almost the only fuel used in cooking, and the ranges look like benches placed against the walls with holes in the tops of them. But we must return to the battleship Maine.
There was no special work for the Maine to do; she was simply to stay in the harbor till further orders. The Spanish officers called on Captain Sigsbee, and he returned their visits, according to the rules that naval officers of all countries are bound to observe. Yet it was easy for the men of the Maine to see that they were not welcome guests. The Maine had twenty-six officers, and a crew of three hundred and twenty-eight men. With her guns, ammunition, and other valuable stores, she was worth $5,000,000. She had been three years in service, having left the Brooklyn navy-yard in November, 1895.
The evening of February 10th, 1898, was dark and sultry. At eight o'clock Captain Sigsbee received the reports from the different officers of the ship that every thing was secure for the night. At ten minutes after nine the bugler sounded "taps," the signal for "turning in," and soon the ship was quiet. At forty minutes after nine a sharp explosion was heard, then a loud, long, roaring sound, mingled with the noise of falling timbers; the electric lights went out, the ship was lifted up, and then she began to sink. The Captain and some of the other officers groped their way to the deck, hardly knowing what had happened. They could do nothing; the ship was sinking fast, and was on fire in several places.
The force of the explosion was so great that it threw Captain Sigsbee out of his cabin, where he sat writing a letter, and against William Anthony, a marine who was on duty as a sentry. As coolly as though nothing had happened, Anthony saluted the Captain and then said:
"Sir, I have the honor to inform you that the ship has been blown up and is sinking."
Small boats came out from the other ships, and rescued many men from the Maine. The Spaniards helped the sufferers in every possible way, taking them to the hospitals in Havana, where they received the best care that the hospitals could give.
In that awful destruction of the Maine, two officers and two hundred and fifty-four of the crew were lost. Several of those who were rescued, died afterward.
The next day divers went down into the water to see what they could find in the wreck, and nineteen dead bodies were brought up. The Spanish officers of Havana asked Captain Sigsbee to permit the city to give the a public funeral; and a plot of ground in Colón Cemetery, outside the city, was given to the United States free of expense forever. The day of the funeral all the flags were put at "half mast," as a sign of mourning, and the stores were closed. Crowds of people joined the long funeral procession.
In the latter part of the year 1899, however, the Maine dead were brought from Havana by the battleship Texas, then commanded by Captain Sigsbee, formerly of the Maine. They were laid away in Arlington Cemetery, near Washington, on December 28th, with simple religious services and the honors of war, in the presence of the President of the United States and his Cabinet, officers of the army and navy, and many other spectators.
Besides Captain Sigsbee and Father Chidwick, who was chaplain of the Maine at the time she was blown up, three others who lived through that awful night were present. They were Lieutenant Commander Wainwright, who was the executive officer of the Maine and who afterwards sank the Furor and Pluton at Santiago; Lieutenant F.C. Bowers, formerly assistant engineer of the Maine; and Jeremiah Shea, a fireman of the Maine, who was blown out of the stoke-hole of the ship through the wreckage.
After three volleys had been fired over the dead, and the bugles had rung out the soldiers' and sailors' last good night, Captain Sigsbee introduced Shea to President McKinley. Being asked for an explanation of his escape, he responded, as he had done to Father Chidwick when he visited him in the hospital in Havana, where he lay covered with wounds and bruises, and with nearly every bone in his body broken:
"I don't know how I got through. I was blown out. I guess I must have been an armor-piercing projectile!"
The work of saving the guns and other valuable things on the Maine was carried on for some time. Among other things that the divers recovered was a splendid silver service that had been presented to the ship by the state of Maine. The keys to the magazines were found in their proper places in the captain's cabin, and his money and papers were also recovered. Finally, it was found that the hull of the great ship could not be raised, and in April the United States flag, that had been kept flying above the wreck since the night of the fatal explosion, was hauled down and the ship formally declared out of commission.
Of course, the awful disaster caused deep sorrow in the United States. There was great excitement also, for many persons thought that some of the Spaniards had wrecked the Maine on purpose. The harbor was full of "mines" or immense iron shells filled with stuff that will explode. All countries at war protect their harbors in this way.
President McKinley appointed men to examine the wreck and find out all they could about the explosion. They found that the ship was destroyed by a "mine," but could not prove that the Spaniards had purposely caused the "mine" to explode.