US Battleship Maine, La Havana Harbor

Identifier: americanspanishw00norw (find matches)
Title: The American-Spanish war;
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors:
Subjects: Spanish-American War, 1898
Publisher: Norwich, Conn., C. C. Haskell & son
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



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ll above the water line or accessible to divers. This property was put on board the U.S. Despatch Steamer Fern and the U.S. Light House Tender Mangrove, which arrived in port from Key West the day following the explosion in answer to a request by cable from Captain Sigsbee. The Spanish officials expressed profound sympathy for the occurrence, and disclaimed any governmental knowledge of its cause. On the afternoon of February 17, impressive funeral services at the municipal palace were held over nineteen bodies, the first recovered, which, after the services in the palace, were taken to the Colon Cemetery escorted by one of the most imposing processions, civic, naval, and military, that had been witnessed in Havana for a long period of years. Every effort was made by the Spaniards to express sympathy on a magnificent scale. On the 2lst of February, a Court of Inquiry, ordered by Rear-Admiral Montgomery Sicard, U. S. Navy, Commander-in-Chief of the United States force on the North Atlantic Sta-
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THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MAINE. 99 tion, convened on board the U. S. Light House Tender Mangrove in the harbor of Havana. The Court was composed of Captain William T. Sampson, President; Captain French E.Chadwick and Lieutenant-Commander William P. Potter, Members; and Lieutenant-Commander Adolph Marix, Judge Advocate. The Court made a most patient, thorough and searching investigation into all matters pertaining to the destruction of the Maine, examining the wreck in detail, above and below the water line, with the assistance of expert Naval Constructors and divers, and examining all witnesses whose testimony promised to throw light, in the faintest degree, on the subject. Eighteen days of this investigation were held on board the U.S. Light House Tender Mangrove in the Harbor of Havana, and five days on board the U. S. Battleship Iowa off Key West, Florida. The primary object of a naval court of inquiry, in the case of damage to naval property, is to determine whether or not blame for thi