LAST OF THE MAINE.

Grey River Argus, 16 May 1912, Page 2

LAST OF THE MAINE.

FLOWER-LADEN: , WRECK ",SUNK. B'IPRESSIVE CI£REMON,Y OF.F ■' • HAVANA;-"-.-/. ■ ; The battleship Maine, whose dest-uc-tion-in Havana Harbour on Febnaary 10, 1898, precipitated ivjje Spanish-Ame-rican war was^ writes a New York correspondent, solemnly sunk. a t , sea on Saturday afternoon, following-' .her'resur.rectiwn- ; from the harbour bottom, where she has resi'ed'fqr -.14 years. 'The battered hulk,. covered.- I w.i | th trnksses of I Qowers, sank to her grave in the gulf stream 600 fathoms deep outside the three-mile limit, but, .opposite Havana, which spot will ■omcially.mark her .tomb Her final . resitting- ;. place,, however, vfill never be known, for the depth of water and the strong- /current of the .igpuif stream probably carried her a number of miles^ to the north-east befoiie she settled (i'htjo thto Atla-11 tic's ,xvK^!mate depths. ■Over 100,000 people lined tho Havana waterfront as the. 'strangest funeral cortege the sea has ever known escorted the wrcked warship to her ocean cemetery. F.orty- seven bodies' of the M-ainG's crew, recovered from the haiU, were reverently conducted 'through/ the streets .of Havana in hermetically sealed coffins -to ..the -harbour wharf previous' to. the: burial -of \thc battleship. Chaplain Ghidwick, Avho; was attached to the. Maine at the time . her destruction, delivered a funeral oration, *nd the bodies were placed on board the cruiser Norith- Dakota for eventual interment at Washington. . The North Dakota and the : cr-uiiser Birmingham (representing- the United Staves Government), and three ;gunboa;ts representin g'the Cuban Government, with a. score of other craft boaring- delegations of American : and Cuban mourners, then formed ILII a'hoi--tow square about the Main. The naval lug- OsceoJ'a, on board, which were hi-gh civil. milita<ry, 'arid naval dignitaries, took the flagship in tow, and the funeral procession started, silently and slowly, from the harbour. On. the Maine, acting as her last pilot, was captain O'Brien familiarlyknown as "Dynamite Johnny," who, as a Cuban filibuster previous to the Spanish-American war, did more ihan anybody else to keep the Cuban revolutiiani&Ts supplied with a~ms. The Maine was covered with flowers from stem to stern. Hundreds of floral decorations, composed of nearly 1,000,---000 individual flowers, concealed : her b a tiered decks, and .a -huge American flag flew from the jury mast. The escorting- vessels halted their liollow square ou'. side the harbour, and as the North Dakota band played ''The Starspangled Banner" the 'saviors, manned the »ide. Some officers then put out 1 to the wrocK, turned on the seacocks,- and retume do their ships. The Maine floated statioary for 10 -minutes, and then began to sink, and as she did so ihc guns of the- warships bou-.-ned a fining cT.rgfj which continued until, with ! 'ho explosion of the compressed air within the hull, the martyred battleship dropped beneath the surface, tho American flag- disappearing .through the floating sea of flowers. There was iin impressive silence, and then from die North Dakota the shri:l .-•.r.'a-.ns of the buglesounded across the waters, playing "taps," the American naval and military night signal for "lights out." The cortege then proceeded back to Havana, except the North* Dakota and Birmingham, which steamed immediately away to the Unued States. As the proces&iion returned, cable mes-s-ages informed New York that tlie ceremony had been completed,- and then three minutes silence was imposed on th pwires in fial respect to the dead, while the church bells of the Cuban and American cities rang funeral peals.