The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 2, No. 10, March 10, 1898 | Page 5

into the mud at the rate of a foot a day, and a week after
the disaster the divers had to wade through mud up to their waists.
Then, too, the water is so dirty that they can hardly see below the
surface.
Nevertheless, they have succeeded in bringing up many valuables,
among others the paymaster's safe containing $2,700.
* * * * *
The opinion seems to be growing that we may never be able to discover
the cause of the disaster. The fact that the forward half of the ship has
been completely destroyed adds probability to this view. The after half,
however, is reported to be practically intact.
As for the submarine mines, it may be that their existence will also
remain problematical. A prominent naval officer has explained that
such mines consist merely of big metal cases filled with gun-cotton,
and that their explosion would blow them into atoms.
* * * * *
In spite of our sensational newspapers, which had done their best to
spread the "war scare," our country has acted in a thoroughly sensible
and praiseworthy manner in relation to the disaster of the Maine. The
best of our newspapers, moreover, had also shown a willingness to
avoid sensational news for the sake of encouraging peace. This shows
that we are a much less aggressive nation than we have hitherto been
thought to be.
In this connection it is worth while calling the attention of the readers

of THE GREAT ROUND WORLD to the immense influence that our
newspapers may exert at a time like this. If all of the papers had
behaved as disgracefully as some have done, we might now be really
on the verge of war.
In other words, it is of the highest importance to us as a nation, with an
absolutely free press, to have for journalists men and women who
possess not only ability, but character and discretion as well. So much
that was false was published in some of the papers that their reputation
for reliability has been entirely lost, and now no one pays very much
attention to what they say. They have certainly now a well-established
reputation as monumental liars, and this reputation will stick to them
for a long time to come.
* * * * *
In the minds of the public the question as to whether the Maine was
blown up by accident or design seems to have reduced itself to the
question whether the harbor of Havana is fortified with subterranean
mines.
On this point some curious evidence has been presented by an
American citizen who has just returned from Cuba, where he has been
for two years in the employ of a large importing house. His name is J. P.
Sherman, and he is a native of Chicago. In an interview recently
published in a New York paper, he stated that it is a fact well known to
residents of Havana that its harbor was fortified with both torpedo and
submarine mines by order of General Weyler. Early last spring
Captain-General Weyler engaged the services of Charles A. Crandal, an
American torpedo expert, formerly a member of the crew of the United
States ship San Francisco, to lay out the mine and torpedo service of
the harbor of Havana. Crandal worked at night, and during the time that
he was in the service of the Spanish Government he placed ten mines
and seven torpedoes in the harbor.
Crandal went to Havana in the latter part of 1895, and was employed
by his firm as a packer. He stated that he had served as a marine and
diver on the United States cruiser San Francisco, while Capt. W. T.

Sampson, now president of the Maine board of inquiry, was in
command of that vessel.
Crandal left their employ in May of last year, and soon after said that
he had entered General Weyler's employ and was working on mines
and torpedoes.
When General Weyler left Havana the map showing the location of
these mines and torpedoes was transferred to the custody of a spy,
known throughout Havana as Captain del Pedrio, who was seen on
more than one occasion on board the battle-ship Maine in his capacity
as captain of the harbor police.
The mines and torpedoes were connected with an electric firing plant in
the magazine diagonally across the channel from Morro Castle, and it
would have been one of the easiest things in the world for one of the
spies to have placed the switch and blown the Maine out of the water.
Weyler received in July or August a consignment of ten large casks,
which Sherman himself saw in the Custom-House shed. Crandal told
him that these contained mines, which he claimed were to be placed on
the