LAST OF THE MAINE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 8 May 1912, Page 5

LAST OF THE MAINE.

FLOWER-LADEN WRECK SUNK. \N IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY O;FF HAVANA. The 'battleship Maine, whose destruction in Havana Harbour on February 15. 1898. precipitated the -Spanish-Ameri--an war was. writes a New York tor- ' •espondent. solemnly sunk at sea. oil Sati relay afternoon, following her resurrec:ion from the harbour bottom, where she las rested for 14 years. The battered nilk, covered with masses of flowers, ;ank to her gl'ave in the gulf stream 600 athgms deep outside the three-mile limit., jut opposite Havana, which. spot will ifficially mark her tomb. Her final restng place, however, will never be .known, 'or the depth of water and the strong nil-rent of the gulf stream l probably earned her a number of miles to the norths :ast before she settled- into the Atlantic's iltimate depths. Over 100,000 people lined the Havana ivaterfront as the strangest funeral 'O'. tege the sea has ever known • escor'cd he wrecked wart-hip to her ocean csm-'-:ery. Forty-seven bodies of the Maine's ■rew. recovered from the hull, were everentlv conducted through the streets if Havana in hermetically sealed ..'otfins :o the harbour wharf .previous to the rnirial of the battleship. Chaplain Chklivick. who was attached to the Md'ne it the time of her .destruction .delivered i funeral oration, and the l>odies were placed on board the cruiser North . Dakota for eventual interment "at Wa-sii-inuton. The North Dakota and- the cruiser Birmingham (representing the United States Government), and three gunboats representing tJie Cuba.n Government, with a score of other craft bearing delegations of American and Cuban mourners, then formed in a hollow square about the Maine. The naval tug Psceola, on board which were high -civil. military, and' 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, familiarly known as "dynamite Johnny." who, as a Cuban filibuster .previous to the Spanish-Ameri-can war. did more than anybody else to : keep the Cuban revolutionists supplied with ar.ms. The Maine was covered with flowers from stern to stern. Hundreds of flpral decorations, composed of nearly 1.000.000 .individual flowers, concealed her battered decks, and a huge American flag flew from the jury mast. The'.es 1 corting vessels halted their hollow equate outside the harbour, and as the North Dakota, band played "The Star-spangled Banner" the sailors manned the side. Some officers then put out to the wrfeck. turned on the seacocks, and returned to their ships. The Maine floated stationary 10 .minutes, and then began to sink, arid as she did so the guns of the warships boomed a fitting clirge. which continued until, with the explosion of the compressed air within the hull, the martyred battleship dropped beneath the surface, the American flag disappearing through the floating sea of flowers. There was an impressive silence, a«d then from the North Dakota the shrill strains of the bugle sounded 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 the Birmingham'. which steamed im# mediately to the United -States. As the procession" returned, cable messages informed New York that the ceremony had been completcel, and then three minutes silence was imposed on the wires in final respect to the dead, while the church bells of the Cuban and American cities rang funeral peals.