Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1911 — WILL NEVER BE KNOWN [ARTICLE]

WILL NEVER BE KNOWN

Cause of Maine Wreck as Deep a Mystery as Ever. General W. H. Bixby States that Explosion of Magazine Effectively Destroyed All Evidence. Detroit, Mich., Sept B.—General W. H. Bixby, chief of the United States engineers, spent the night in Detroit on the Hancock, on which he is touring this section of the great lakes, examining engineering work that is being done, and he declared that it was absolutely impossible to tell yet just how the Maine had been blown up in Havana harbor. “The board made its report largely on inference,” said the general, “but the conditions were such when the water was pumped' away from around the wreck that it was impossible to say exactly what had occurred* There was an explosion in the magazine of the ship, and it tore the hull so badly that it was impossible to determine whether there was an external explosion first or jiqt Just what happened will never be known.”