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About The Coquille Valley sentinel. (Coquille, Coos County, Or.) 1921-2003 | View Entire Issue (March 3, 1922)
I with th* sta te rand along sent to t thy Nor« anchor off JpE of hi* I forthwith, th* m a /o r k son being th at an eminently tru st worthy newspaper had cabled the re port upon the American consulate. In a conversation I had with tain Sigrtee some years later, hi cribed hi* midnight visit to th* flag ship, his orders from Admiral Slcard to proceed to Havana at once, the ad miral adding ho did not »know what condition* h* would find upon arri val. He did not hamper th* Maine’s W atchmaking — Engraving — Jewelry M anufacturing commander with any tearing aU to his Captain Sigsbee returned to his ■hip, gar* th* necessary order for '■ ■ ................................... y l i i p m se» sDreadhur fires under the boilers e n d , I thought it nocessary to pay high to get under way as soon as steam I a **“ ipaapeontaodlng, she had c« M cable toll* in order to claim credit could bo made reedy. Awnings were *• hw . u“ d?ta« throu*t‘ *** “ plo#ion (eg * despatch th at had no i yet been rolled up and soot below, and awn-1oi oi her own m ,t**h»** sent. I endeavored to aaeure him ing stanchions which might hav* in- Day by day these messages became terfered with gun fir* were removed, more urgent. But whet were the cor- th at unlee* I took thi* precaution the along with their ridge pole*. respondeat* to do? Pending th* ar- despatch might be credited to some- ^ Now with the Maine under way and rival of the American Naval Court, one else in the bureau. Whereupon» churning her way to th* harbor whom the Spaniards had established a os»- the colonel grinned, «aid I could tell H destruction was destined to in- don around the'w reck and no on* was that to some of the American mar • * nnes, added th at he didn’t like the volve two nations in war, let us leave allowed near it. The Court of In- th* doomed battleship fo r e moment qulry, heeded by th* 1st* Rear Ad- use of the word “ mine” anyway and and take up th* narrative firom the miral Sampson, arrived on th e 'lig h t - th at the editor m ight add an “e” to Inglatorra Hotel in Havana. I house tender Fern, and began its the word main, and reach some «holly erroneous xonchision, th a t is, ■ A waa a t an early hour in th# ^ n g a on b i r d th at vessel. But erroneous from the Spanish view forenoop when a messenger from the ***** <lw BO* ***lp **• ****^i#i point. office knocked on th i door of j non® of whom woro allowed. I protorod this altogether too Mr. Caldwell’s room and handed him P * board. ' Thera w ta no risk th# adroit colonel a cigar and took n turn a cablegram. It was from th* Her- correspondents would not have yen- ■ v uld end reed: ~ turned to hav* obtained some inkling down the corridor, Jn an effort to think pp something else. I knehr this ----- “Rush story row-bulletined on Cu- °* ***• ****••• But ***** particular censor would be going off ban '«aa* crop—w* want it for main j frosted with ebetmlse impossible duty a t 11 o’clock, and I was trying v overcome. section.” ' v '- *■ to bo ready for the next one. I Such was the situation whoa there From the hotel new* stand th a t came on* night e hurried knock oh day I had bought a copy of Life and > my hotel door, the hour being about had read therein Kipling’s poem, V ' • " ? , 10 o’clock. Kven after the laps# of “The Destroyers.” I thought that all these years I do not fool free to might help, end going back to the 'reveal the name of this caller. But hotel, got the copy and when the re I may say th at ha was an officer a t lief censor came on presented him tached to the flagship New York and ,.j£ th at ha had been sent to Havana to with this: “American colony in Havana much superintend the work of the divers ~ * : • engaged in examining the wreck. I Interested in Kipling’s poem Destroy- had been shipmate* with this officer o n appearing in current iesue of Life. Navel contingent asser t tech him the< name of tig vessel th at htid before leaving the navy to take up nical accuracy of last vers* impocsi- newspaper work, and wo were warm been ordered to Havana, otherwise upon.” friends. As he hurried Into the room ble A A to m«* improve the Maine. ra aH tn e r f k a t t r i k i t l o I n V l n . I saw he was intensely excited. He Direetljfl across the hall was the room the former Confederate general, first nror* me to secrecy, exacted a Fits Hugh Lee, then United State* promise th at I would not reveal the Consul General to Havana. The cor source of my information, and then respondent met the general in the without much ado told in one breath twenty-fourth anniversary of the dis- hallway. “The battfeehip Maine,” the astter cornea on this February IS correspondent said, “is on her way to Havana.” Here is the full story: , “The keel of the Maine,” he said, “Impossible,” Gen. Lee replied, “the stepping to the door dnd closing it, |t It was early in February, 1998, that I received oifieer from my newspaper, government would never send a war and speaking low and fast, “Is within th* New York Herald, to* proceed to ship her* unless I asked for on# and 18 inch** of the surface. We found it Havana end relieve John R. Caldwell, that I have not dam .” there tonight Mr. Powalaon was in charge of th* Herald’s Havana / A t th at moment earn* the thud of with me and ha has positivsly identi The doom-bolt in the darkness freed, reau. . '' . r e n a Hurrying to the balcony the fied the keel plates.” The min* th at splits the main; two saw the Main* entering the har Havana a t th at time waa a t r Wilfred Vaa Nee* Pemetson1 was The whit* hot wake, the *wildering loos city- The relations between this bor and bulb* of white smoko drift ona of the constructors who had bailt country and Spain were strained to ing from her saluting battery. the Maine and had bean summoned ha the breaking point Riots were fre As a newspaper correspondent who quent and every American in Havana rdported the blowing up of the Maino knew hie reputation as a highly felt that his life was in danger a t all and as one who rema (nod la Havana eompetont and thoroughing officer, th f tto y would at once hit upon times. Caldwell realised . it and daring the sitting* of the American and I knew any information my call i line, “The mine th a t Naval Court of Inquiry, a body whoa* e r gave m* could bo entirely depend - elite the mairi” as containing the mas sought to a n a himself. But th en a strict edict against th* sal* of Sm verdict was th at the Maine had basa sage I was tofjflhg to got to thorn. arm*, on* chiefly directed against destroyed as tfia result of an outside The orderly returned with the copy Cubans, for the island waa than in a explosion, I have frequently been ask of Life, the censor took it and ta m bias* of insurrection. ed my opinion aa to the causa. ing to the last v a n s of the poem read So, unable to equip- himself with That the Court of laquiry was con to the orgeat question which editors down to those fateful lines. “Very the means of solf-dofenc*, CaldweU vinced th at the Main* had been blown wer* cabling to their Havana cor clever,” he said, as hm handed back wrote to th* H onld and imbed th at a ap by a min* planted by the S p a n respondent». The fact th a t the' the dispatch. ‘ k revolver be sent to him. One wai iards in Havana harbor, I bava never Maine’s h a d had been hove up until Baffled in all efforts to gat the purchased immediately and shipped, for a moment doubted. That they did it was within- I I . inch** of the sur story through th at night I went on But whan tt arrived there were no à o t say bo in ps many words was face meant only one thing, th at the beard e a r despatch beat and aet o at cartridge*, and the eorraspoi doubtless da* to reasons other than battleship had .h am blown up by e 'fo r Key West aa aoen ea the h ar could no more purchase cartridges those contained in the fact which they min* piers! beneath the keel **^ had bor rules permitted, and filed enough than he could purekae* revolver* considered. Hera they sere: not been destroyed by the explosion on the Key West wire th a t evening Meanwhile th* situation was Rowing of one of her own magasines. I t to occupy a full page of the Herald of w an*. Instead of w ritiag for cart Spain had been strained to the break meant war. the next day. ridges ho cab lad. ing point I t was a t this moment of But how was this potrentious news I refer to this merely to bring in p m Herald and its Havana corres •over* tension th at an American bat to be gotten pest the Spanish censer? the sequel. On the day of my de pondent employed a private cod*. This tleship entered th* harbor. A t her The rale of closing the cable office a t parture from Havana, another of the wes necessary becaqse of th* strict anchorage Inside the harbor the com 9 p. m. had been changed and th* correspondent* g o t an inkling of w hat censorship exorcised in Havana by manded the entire situation, there not office was wide open a t all times. I had heard the preceding n ig h t Hav the Spanish. And as it happened the being a tingle Spanish gun th at could But Madrid and Washington were ing no despatch boat ho bed U tru s t Herald man, Fred Bur gin, who was In be brought to boar against her, all of keeping it busy and there was very wholly to the cable. Knowing from charge of th* code and of Havana these being In the batteries th at over sxperierm# hbw hard it was to got cable new*, was home sick when this looked the eea approaches. lowed to send, th at little being sub anything past the censor, he wrote a message ram* click ng into the Herald „ A Spanish pilot brought the Maine jected to the closest scrutiny by th* office one night: ' ' : ' into harbor and designated the buoy censors. I had a dispatch boat in “Camera received but ao plates. to whlfeh she was to make feat. If, th* harbor, which had been used for Pleas* hurry b y next steamer. under the circumstances th* Span th* carrying of despatches to th* tel “Jeha R. CaldweU.” ' iards held not laid a mine under that egraph office at Kay West, but she The full name “John R. CaldweU1 predetermined buoy in order to dom could render no help in this amor signified that the message meant mo* in a te , aay foreign warship making I [ gency. for by the rule* of th* port no than the word* indicated and th at the fast .to it, they would hav* been in vessel could leave between the hours office would have to puzzle tt out. Had credibly shortsighted. of sunset end sunrise. Borgia been on duty he would instant There has been much talk of an in-1 There was nothing In out secret ly hav* understood that the revolver side explosion. But the keel of the code book by which this information had arrived bat that there were ao Maine wee found within 18 inches of about th* Maine's kool could be con the surface. No inside explosion veyed, and while on my way to th* could hav* driven th at part of th* censor's office I evolved several mes sages, meant to deceive him, and yet The reference to the finding of the be d e e r to th* editor for whom it Maine’s keel so near the surface of was intended, bat reported them all the water recalls another bit of un mitted, read a* follows: written history.' the correspondent was toying to tell tween America nod Spain. Th* hour ' On th* heeh of th* disaster all cor !~ “ In important story which will be his office came when th e Hefald’a full was 9:80 p. m. ’A * Havana ertile of- respondents stationed in Havana be filed from despatch boat in Key West W account wasp r ttisbel on th« en- gan receiving more or leas frantic tomorrow, pioas* note th at main ■uiag morning. cables from their hoes* office* telling story is mine.” news th at night. The Herald got its how hupurativ* tt waa. for the Amer- Washington Bureau on the ’phone, and e*1«* -nd 8uDd*T Or*«oni*n directed th at every man be hustled out OREGON PRODUCT NO DIRT NO SOOT NO A SH AN INTENSE H EA T Use It and Save Money Delivered to All Parts of the City , m a te Beaver Hill Lump $9.50 per ton $8.50 per ton Beaver Hill Nut Delivered in ton lots where it can be shoveled from wagon Office open till 5:80 p. m . W ednesdays LEO J. CARY First National Bank Bldg HOW HISTORY IS OFTEN MADE , ---------- 1 t Events Leading Up to Our Being Exhort ed to “Remember the Maine”—Corre- J spondent Wants Cartridges, Gets a Battleship. CAUSEOF EXPLOSION DETERMINED The Race to Get the P in t News of the Dbdqfiure to the New York Herald and the Amusing Methods Used to Out wit the Spanish Censors at Havana. *r had misinterpreted th* message about cartridges, end makes this com ing February 1» -twen ty-forth anni versary of th* tragedy--the occasion for setting history right. Th* reason this revealing chapter has not boon written before is this: The correspondent who hATtont the cable waa one of my moat reload friends. Under seal of confidence he had told ma th* entire story. Ha had planned to writ* it himself but had thought tt inadvisable to do so until and obtained his permission to make sr passing reference to it in aa article which I bad been asked to prepare describing the scenes in Havana on th* night of th* Maine’s destruction, but the reference did not attract the a t tention tt deceived. More with the idea of supplying my friend with date than employing it myself, I had, as op portunity served, asked th* several ac to n la foe drama, each of whom I in timately knew, th e phrts they had played. Then the man for whom these note* were intended came back from Havana, w hen ha had bean stationed his death released the story to me, but W a t to st time I was plunged into war work as publicity manager for th* United States Shipping Board and Phone 76J r . “’* r Ä £ J * * n ia , M a th , — M M t M. *4 vif* 'k ¡Mi i ‘- W#»- Jmt' •„/.y' L - '. J . - » 1