"Yes, Cuba will be free, and Spain will get knocked into six million pieces," blazed away Captain Ponsberry, who was wont to talk very extravagantly when warmed up. "The cowards! to blow 'em up when they were sleeping."
"Does it say that?" questioned Hobson. "No fair-minded nation would do such a dastardly bit o' work, cap'n."
"I don't say the nation did it—as a nation—but their officers did it, and that's the same thing—the sneaks! I see some think it was an explosion from the inside, but I know that couldn't happen in our navy; the rules aboard a warship are too strict."
"That's right," piped up a thin, nasal voice—that belonged to Luke Striker, a sailor who had been working beside Larry. "Didn't I put in five years aboard a warship, cruising the Atlantic? There couldn't be no explosion from inside, not with the daily inspections of the magazines, and the wetting of the guncotton, and the keys and electrical connections in the captain's cabin; no, sir. That explosion came from the outside, and—and—but, captain, won't you read the full account?"
"Yes, Nat, read it out; all of the boys will want to hear it, especially those who claim the stars and stripes as their flag," added Tom Grandon.
And so the captain of the Columbia read the account which, stripped of its newspaper sensationalism, was as follows; the special report being dated at Havana, Cuba, Feb. 16, 1898.
"At quarter to ten o'clock last evening a terrible explosion occurred on board or under the United States battleship Maine, lying in the harbor of Havana. The battleship has been completely destroyed, and over two hundred and fifty sailors and two officers have lost their lives.
"The explosion was so heavy that many of the houses in Havana were shaken, and people ran outside, thinking it was an earthquake shock. It was soon learned that the great battleship had gone up, and the docks were lined with people, while rescue boats put out from all directions.
"The shock came without an instant's warning. Captain Sigsbee was seated in his cabin, writing a letter to his wife, while many of the officers and sailors had retired for the night, when there came a deafening report, followed by thick volumes of smoke and a shower of iron piping and splinters, and then the vessel began to sink, her heavy structure and armor plate twisted, bent, and broken like a battered wash-boiler.
"The officers who were below, and who had escaped serious injury, rushed or rather swam on deck, only to find themselves in a mass of wreckage from which it was almost impossible to extricate themselves. The explosion occurred close to the men's quarters, and but few of the gallant jackies got out alive. One ladder leading from the rear torpedo compartment was literally jammed with men struggling for life.
"Fortunately the Alfonso XII. was lying close by, and a powerful searchlight was speedily turned upon the scene. The steamer City of Washington, also close at hand, sent out all her boats and brought in a great number of those swimming about, many of whom were wounded and on the point of drowning.
"So far but few of the dead bodies have been recovered, everybody being on the lookout for the injured. Many have been taken to the hospitals in Havana, while some are lying at death's door on the steamships which were in the vicinity of the explosion.
"A dozen theories have started up as to the cause of the explosion. One is that the guncotton on board went off by spontaneous combustion; another is that the plating between the engine rooms and one of the magazines became too hot and ignited the powder; and still another that the electric lighting system is responsible. The general opinion among those on board, however, is that the Maine was blown up from the outside, either by a torpedo or by a sunken mine, most likely the latter.
"There is fearful though suppressed excitement in Havana, and the Americans here look blackly at the Spanish soldiers as they move from place to place. Spanish officers declare the explosion must have come from the interior of the ship, and profess to be deeply concerned over the disaster. Certainly a majority of them are sincere in their condolence. But in the back quarters of the town the Spanish sympathizers do not hesitate to declare that it serves the Yankees right, that they had no right to send a big warship here at this time, and that they hope every warship that may come from the United States will be served the same way."
"Is that all?" queried the mate of the Columbia, as Captain Ponsberry paused in his reading of the newspaper account.
"That's all the news there is of the explosion. I reckon everything was upset, and they couldn't get details," answered the captain.
"The Maine must have been a big boat," said Hobson.
"She was a big boat," answered Luke Striker. "I know something about her. She was what they call a battleship of the second class—although I allow as how she was fust class all over. She came out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and she was over three hundred feet long, nearly sixty feet broad and drew about twenty-seven feet of water. Her hull was of steel, and she was put down as about sixty-seven hundred tons' displacement."
"Who is this Captain Sigsbee?" asked Larry.
"I don't know much about him, exceptin' that he came from the Naval Academy, and he used to be in charge of the Hydrographic Office, and I've heard he made a big thing of that."
"I see in another part of this paper that there were three hundred and fifty men on the pay-roll," said Captain Ponsberry. "If that's so, then only about a hundred of 'em escaped. It's the wust accident I've heard of since the sinking of that British warship the Victoria, which went down by being struck by one of her own fleet while off the coast of Tripoli. She carried about four hundred poor sailors down with her, and Vice-Admiral Tryon in the bargain."
A lively discussion lasting several minutes followed. The news was such that it would furnish talk, especially for sailors, for a long time to come.
But the work aboard the Columbia was not to be forgotten, and soon Larry was back at his post, trying to make up for lost time.
CHAPTER VI
A BRUSH WITH TWO KANAKAS
Larry went back to his work with his head filled, with what he had heard. The news was truly terrible. To think of those poor jackies who had been summoned before their Maker without an instant's warning made him shudder, and half unconsciously he breathed a prayer that such a fate might never overtake himself.
"None of the navy for me," remarked Hobson, as he, too, resumed his labor. "I've sailed upon merchantmen going on twenty-six years, and they are good enough for me."
"I can't say as much," put in Luke Striker, who, as Larry soon discovered, was a typical Yankee, hailing from Bangor, Maine. "O' course the rules are strict, and you have to pay strict attention to all commands; but the jackies are a jolly crowd with it all, and then, if war comes, think of all the glory to be won!"
"If a shell or a shot don't finish you," interrupted Hobson. "No," he added, as Striker muttered something about being afraid, "I'm as brave, I think, as most men, but I'm peaceably inclined, and I say, let them as makes the quarrel go and fight it out."
"But the poor lads at the bottom of Havana harbor can't fight any more, matey," said Striker.
"No, they can't, an' more the pity. But then they didn't make the fight at the start. It's those in high authority do that." And Hobson turned to shore with a case of goods he was trucking; and the discussion, for the time being, came to an end.
Although it was still early in the year, it was hot in these latitudes, and when the noonday whistles blew, Larry was glad enough to knock off for his dinner and a rest. He was about to go ashore when Grandon hailed him.
"Have you paid for your dinner in advance?" he