The magazine and shell rooms were always locked after having been opened, and after the destruction of the Maine the keys were found in their proper place in the Captain’s cabin, everything having been reported secure that evening at eight P. M. The temperatures of the magazines and shell room were taken daily and reported.  The only magazine which had an undue amount of heat was the after 10- inch magazine, and that did not explode at the time the Maine was destroyed.

The torpedo warheads were all stowed in the after part of the ship under the ward room, and neither caused nor participated in the destruction of the Maine.  The dry gun cotton primers and detonators were stowed in the cabin aft, and remote from the scene of the explosion.

Waste was carefully looked after on board the Maine to obviate danger.  Special orders in regard to this had been given by the commanding officer.  Varnishes, dryers, alcohol and other combustibles of this nature were stowed on or above the main deck and could not have had anything to do with the destruction of the Maine.  The medical stores were stored aft under the ward room and remote from the scene of the explosion.  No dangerous stores of any kind were stowed below in any of the other store rooms.

The coal blinkers were inspected daily.  Of those bunkers adjacent to the forward magazines and shell rooms four were empty, namely, “B3, B4, B5 and B6.”  “A5” had been in use that day and “A16” was full of new river coal.  This coal had been carefully inspected before receiving it on board.  The bunker in which it was stowed was accessible on three sides at all times, and the fourth side at this time, on account of bunkers “B4” and “B6” being empty.  This bunker, “A16” had been inspected Monday by the engineer officer on duty.

The fire alarms in the bunkers were in working order, and there had never been a case of spontaneous combustion of coal on board the Maine.  The two after boilers of the ship were in use at the time of the disaster, but for auxiliary purposes only, with a comparatively low pressure of steam and being tended by a reliable watch.  These boilers could not have caused the explosion of the ship.  The four forward boilers have since been found by the divers and are in a fair condition.

On the night of the destruction of the Maine everything had been reported secure for the night at eight P. M. by reliable persons, through the proper authorities, to the commanding officer.  At the time the Maine was destroyed the ship was quiet, and, therefore, least liable to accident caused by movements from those on board.

3.  The destruction of the Maine occurred at 9:40 P. M. on the 15th day of February, 1898, in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, she being at the time moored to the same buoy to which she had been taken upon her arrival.

There were two explosions of a distinctly different character, with a very short but distinct interval between them, and the forward part of the ship was lifted to a marked degree at the time of the first explosion.