The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, March 09, 1922, Page 6, Image 6
?
Reporter Git
I Maine
it -
I ERROR CAUSES
I CAN WAR
. < ,
Cable Brought Battleship
Instead of
I Cartridges.
(W. S. Merriwether in Miss. Sun.) j
W. S. Meriwether, the author of the:
following article, was formerly on the i
, staff of the New York Herald, but is
now editor of the Mississippi Sun,
published at Charleston, Miss.:
In Stephenson's American history,
the one now being used in our public
schools, occurs this paragraph:
"At Havana there were public demonstrations
of ill will toward Americans.
Therefore, the battleship Maine
V,' ^ i i
was ordered to Havana as an intimation
that Americans would be protected
by their government."
The Maine was not sent to Havana
"as an intimation that Americans
would be protected by the5 government."
She was sent there because
of a misinterpreted cable message
which a newspaper correspondent in
Havana spnt to his paper in New
York. All the correspondent wanted
r.;- ; t
was a box of cartridges. A battleship
was sent instead. The battleship was
blown up in Havana harbor, war with
Spain ensued and a considerable part
of the geography of the world was
changed as a result.
The writer was in Havana at the
I time of the Maine disaster, reported
that immortal horror to the identical
newspaper whose assistant cable editor
had interpreted the message
about cartridges and makes this coming
February 15?twenty-fourth anjgk'
niversary of the tragedy?the occa?'
, gion for setting history right.
The reason this revealing chapter
has not been written before is this:
Thp pnrresnnndent who had Sent the
t- * I
cable was one of my most valued
friends. Under seal of confidence he
had told me the entire story. He had
planned to write it himself but
thought it inadvisable to do so until
some years had interevened. I asked
and obtained his permission to make
Pa passing reference to it in an article
which I had been asked to prepare
describing the scenes in Havana on
the night of the Maine's destruction,
but the reference did not attract the
attention it deserved. More with the
idea of supplying my friend with data
than employing it myself, I had, as
opportunity served asked the several
. actors in the drama, each of whom
& , I intimately knew, the parts they had
played. Then the man for whom those
notes were intended, came back from
Havana, where he had been stationed
as correspondent for the Associated
Press, and suddenly died. I felt that
his death released the story to me,
shut just at that time I was plunged
, Into war work as publicity manager
for the United States Shipping board
and the episode was forgotten until j
. the calendar brought its reminder
that the twenty-fourth anniversary of
the disaster comes around on this
" ' '
February 15. IJere is the full story:
Relieved Havana Man.
It was early in February, 1918,
that I received orders from my newspaper,
the New York Herald, to proceed
to Havana, and relieve John R.
Caldwell, in charge of the Herald's
Havana bureau. Caldwell was an exceedingly
capable newspaper man,
but somehow had come into disfavor
with the then owner of the Herald,
the late James Gordon Bennett, who
had cabled from Paris a curt order
to make the change.
Havana at that time was a trouiblous
city. The relations between this
country and Spain were strained to
the breaking point. Riots were frequent
and every American felt that
his life was in danger at all times.
Caldwell realized it and sought to
arm himself. But there was a strict
edict against the sale of firearms,
one chiefly directed against Cubans,
for the island was then in a blaze of
insurrection.
So unable to equip himself with
the means of self-defense, Caldwell
wrote to the Herald and asked that a
revolver De sem. hj uim, vuc waa p ui chased
immediately and shipped. But
when it arrived there were no cartridges,
and the correspondent ccruld
no more purchase cartridges than he
could purchase revolvers. "Meanwhile
the situation was growing worse. Instead
of writing for cartridges he cabled.
The Herald and its Havana correspondent
employed a private code.
This was necessary because of the
strict censorship exercised in Havana
by the Spanish. And as it happened
the. Herald man, Fred Burgin, who
was in charge of the code and of Havana
cable news, was home sick when
V- .. .
>es Reason \
Went to Hai
SPANISH-AMERIIS
CLAIM.
this message came clicking into the
Herald office one night:
"Camera received but no plates.
"Please hurry by next steamer.
"John R. Caldwell."
*' ? *
1 UUllg .isaisiaiu .ui.xru xum^n,
The full name "John R. Caldwell,"
signified that themessage meant more
than the words indicated and that
the office would have to puzzle it out.
Had Burgin been on duty he would
instantly have understood that the
revolver had arrived but that there
were no cartridges. But Spain's
Nemesis was around that night. A
young assistant got the message and
turning to the code book, translated
it to mean that the Americanconsulate
had been attacked.
Fireworks ensued. An attack on
our consulate in Havana was a spark
to set off the long-brewing trouble between
America and Spain. The hour
was 9:30 p. m. The Havana
cable office closed at 9 p. m. and
there was no possible way of getting
further news that night. The Herald
got its Washington Bureau on the
'phone, and directed that every man
be hustled out on the story. John
D. Long was then secretary of the
navy. The word that the American
consulate in Havana had been attacked
was telephoned to him by the
Herald's Washington's bureau. There
was a; rapid telephonic conference
wdth the state department and the
white house and along about 11
o'clock a wire was sent to Rear Ad
miral'Montgomery Sicard, commanding
the North Atlantic fleet, then at
anchor off Dry Tortugas to detach a
vessel of. his command and send it to
Havana forthwith, the reason "being
that an eminently trustworthy correspondent
of an important newspaper
had cabled the report of an attack
upon the American consulate.
After the lapse of all these years I
cannot now recall whether it was
lieutenant, now Rear Admiral Albert
Gleaves, whose torpedo boat conveyed
the mesage from the Key West naval
station to the flagship, New York.
Which ever it was, the mesage reached
the admiral about midnight and
directly thereafter a signal was made
for the commanding officer of the
Maine to report on board.
Midnight Visit to Flagship.
In a conversation I had with Capt.
Sigsbee some years later, he describ^
^ *liaf m i /I n 1 srh t TTi'oit f r\ flaP'ohlTl
cu mat iiiiuui^iiv t ioiv w vuu j
his orders from Admiral Sicard to
proceed to Havana at once, the admiral
adding "he did not know what
condition he would find upon arrival.
He did not hamper the Maine's commander
with any instructions, leaving
all to his discretion. \
Capt. Sigsbee returned to his ship,
gave the necessary orders for spreading
fires under the boilers and to get
under way as soon as steam could be
made ready. Awnings were rolled up
and seilt below, and awning stanchions
which might ihave interfered
with gunfire, were removed, along
with their ridge ropes. Guns were not
loaded for under the high discipline
+ ixs mo,intoinQ/1 1n tlia T?QW PVPTV
t^ial io luauutamvu i,uv ^ , v>
one could have been made ready for
opening fire within two or three minutes
after the ringing of the gong,
calling the crew to "general quarters,"
which means that upon the
sounding of that signal every one
jumps to his appointed place, the men
detailed to the magazines springing
to their stations and sending up ammunition
for the guns, the gun crews
loading with equal celerity.
Tho \faiTio FriHprxrav
Now with the Maine under way and
churning her way to the harbor where
her destruction was destined to involve
two nations in war, let us leave
the doomed battleship for a moment
and take up the narrative from the
Inglaterra Hotel in Havana.
It was at an early hour in the forenoon
when a message from the cable
office knocked on the door of Mr.
Caldwell's room and hmded him a?
cablegram. It was from the Herald
and read:
"Rush story you bulletined on Cuban
cane crop?we want it for main
section."
Not having sent any bulletin on the
Cuban cane crop, Mr. Caldwell realized
at once that this was a code
message and turning to his code
book found the first part of it conveying
tidings that "A United States
man-of-war has been ordered to Ha
vana." He was puzzled a moment
over the rest, for there was nothing
in the code hook anyway resembling
it. Then it flashed upon (him that the
words "main section" was employed
to tell him the name of the vessel
that had been ordered to Havana,
otherwise the Maine.
Directly across the hall was the
Vhy the
)ana Harbor
room of the former Confederate general,
Fitz Hugh Lee, then United
States consul general to Havana.
"Impossible," Gen. Lee replied,
"the government would never send
a warship here unless I asked for
one and that I have not done."
At that moment came the thud of
^~ 1
guns. Hurrying to tne oaicuuy mc
two saw the Maine entering the harbor
and bulbs of white smoke drifting
from her saluting battery.
The Facts Considered.
As a newspaper correspondent who
reported the blowing up of the Maine
and as one who remained in Havana
during the sitting of the American '
naval court of inquiry, a body whose
verdict was that the Maine had been
destroyed as the result of an outside
explosion, I have frequently been asked
my opinion as to the cause.
That the court of inquiry was convinced
the Maine had been blown up
by a mine planted by the Spaniards
in Havana harbor, I have never for a
moment doubted. That they did net
say so in as many words v\as doubtless
dut to the reason other than
those contained in the facts which
they considered. Here they are:
The relations between America and
Spain had been strained to the breaking
point. It was at this moment of
severe tension that an American battleship
entered the harbor. At bar
anchorage inisde the narbor she commanded
the entire situation, There
not being a single Spanish gun that
could be brought to bear against her,
all of these being in the batteries that
ever-looked the sea approaches.
A Spanish pilot brought the Maine
into harbor and designated the buoy
to which she was to make fast. If,
under the circumstances the Spaniards
had not laid a mine under that
predetermined buoy in order to dominate
any foreign warship making fast
to it, they would have been incredibly
eVinrt cio-htori
UUV/1 l>
There has been much talk of an inside
explosion. But the keel of the
Maine was found within eighteen inches
of the surface. No inside explosion
could have driven that part
of the underbody upwards.
Some Unwritten History.
The reference to the finding of the
Maine's keel so near the surface of
the water recalls another bit of unwritten
history.
On the heelsof the disaster, all correspondents
stationed in Havana becan
rprprivins' mere nr less frantic ca
hies from their home offices telling
how imperative it was for the American
public to be informed at once
whether the Maine had been blown
up by a Spanish mine, or whether, as
Spain was contending, she had come
to her undoing through the explosion
of one of her own magazines.
Day by day these messages became
more urgent. But what where the correspondents'to
do? Pending the arrival
of the American naval court,,
the Spaniards had established a cordon
around the wreck and no one was
allowed neaT it. The court of inquiry,
headed by the late Rear Admiral
Sampson, arrived on the lighthouse
tender Fern, and began its bearings
on board, that vessel. But that did
not help the harried correspondents
none of vrhom were allowed on board.
There were no risks the correspondents
would not have ventured to have
obtained some inkling of the case.
But they were confronted with obstacles
impossil^e to overcome.
? Such was the situation when there
came one night a hurried knock on
my hotel door, the hour being about
10 o'clock. Even after the lapse of all
these years I do not feel free to reveal
the name of this caller. But I may
say that he was an officer attached
to the flagship New York and that
he had been sent from Key West to
superintend the work of the divers
engaged in examining the wreck. I
had been shipmates with this officer
before leaving the navy to take up <
newspaper work, and we were warm
friends. As he faurried into the room
I saw he was intensely excited. He
first swore me to secrecy, exacted a
promise that I would not reveal the
source of my information and then
without more ado, told in one breath
what all the world was on tiptoe to
know.
"The keel of the Maine," he said,
stepping to the door and closing it,
and speaking low and fast, "is within
eighteen inches' of the surface. We
i found it there tonight. Mr. Pdw?Ison
wal with me and he has positively
identified the keel plates."
Wilfred Van Ness Powelson was
one of the contractors who had built
the Maine and had been summoned
as an expert to go over the wreck. I
knew his reputation as a highly com!
petent and thorough-going officer,
and I knew any information my caller
gave me, could be entirely depended
upon.
j Keel Up Eighteen Inches. t
i
Here was the biggest piece of news
that could have emanated out of Havana
at that time, the answer to the
urgent question, which editors were
cabling to their Havana correspondents.
The fact that the .Maine's keel
had been hove'up until it was within
eighteen inches of the surface
meant only one thing, that the battleship
had been blown up by a mine
placed beneath the keel and had not
hoon ripstrnvpr! hv thp pvnlosinn of
one of her own magazines. It meant
wa r.
But how was this portentious news
to be gotten past the Spanish censor?
The rule of closing the cable office at
9 p. m. had been changed and the office
was wide open at all times. But
.Madrid and Washington were keeping
it busy and there was very little
that correspondents were allowed to
send, that little being subjected to
the closest scrutiny by the censors. I
had a dispatch boat in the harbor,
which had been used for the carrying
of dispatches to the telegraph office
at Key West, but she could render no
help in this emergency, for by the
rules of the port, no vessel could
leave between the hours of sunset
and sunrise.
j&iuaing tne censor.
There was nothing in our secret
code book by which this information
about the-Maine keel could be conveyed,
and while on my way to the
censor's office I evolved several messages,
meant to deceive ;him, and yet
be clear to the editor for whom it
was intended, but rejected them all
as unsuitable. The one was finally
submitted, read as follows:
"In important story which will be
filed from dispatch boat in Key West
tomorrow, please note the main story
is mine."
The censor, a Spanish colonel, and
whose knowledge of English was disappointingly
complete read the message
attentively, and then inquired if
I thought it necessary to pay high
cable toll in order to claim credit for
a dispatch that had not yet been sent.
I endeavored to assure him that unless
I took this precaution tjie dispatch
might be credited to some one
else in the bureau. Whereupon the
colonel grinned, saying I could tell
that to the American marines, added
that he didn't like the use of the word
"mine" anyway and that the editor
might add an "e" to the word main,
and reach some wholly erroneous
conclusion, that is, erroneous from
the Spanish viewpoint.
I proffered this altogether too
adroit colonel a cigar and took a turn
down the corridor,' in an eno *t to
think up. something else. I knew
this particular censor would be going
off duty at 11 o'clock, and I was trying
to be ready for the next one.
Making Use of Kipling.
From the hotel news stand that
day I had bought a copy of Life and
had read therein Kipling's poem,
"The Dstroyers." I thought that
might, help and going back to to the
hotel, got the copy, and when the relief
censor came on, presented him
with this:
"Naval officers here are very much
interested in Kipling's poem Destroyers
appearing in current issue of Life.
Naval contingent assert technical accuracy
of last verse impossible to improve
upon."
After reading that tribute to Kipling's
poem, the censor asked me if
I had a copy of Life with me. I told
him I did not. Whereupon he summoned
an orderly and told him to go
to the hotel and get one. The last
verse of the poem reads:
The strength of twice three thousand
horse
That serve the one command;
The hand that heaves the headlong
force,
The hate that backs the hand;
The doom-bolt in the darkness freed,
The mine that splits the main;
The white hot wake, the wildering
speed?
The Choosers of the Slain!
As the crux of the situation was a
magazine or mine, i very wen Knew
that my office would at once hit upon
that pregnant line. , "The. mine that
splits the main" as containing the
message I was trying to get to them.
The orderly returned with the copy
of L/ife, the censor took it and turning
to the last verse of the poem read
down to those fateful lines. "Very
clever," he said, a's he handed back
the dispatch.
Baffled in all efforts to get the
story through that night I went on
board our dispatch boat and set out
for Key west as soon as me naruuirules
permitted, and filed enough on
the Key West wire that evening to
occupy a full page of the Herald of
the next day.
I refer to this merely to bring in
the sequel. On 'the day of my departure
from Havana, another of the
oorresondenis got an inkling of what
I had heard the preceeding. night.
Having no dispatch boat he had to
trust wholly to the cable. Knowing
from experience how hard it was to
get anything past the censor, he
wrote a purely descriptive story, the
crowds on the Parado, the brilliant
sunshine, sea breezes droning
through the palm trees, the shimmering
bay and buzzards roosting on
the keel of the Maine.
As all of it was extremely complimentary
to the scenery and the climate
the censor let it go. But when it
reached the New York office the cable
editor failed to catch the significance
of the line "buzzards roosting on the
keel of the Maine," and as the paper
had no room for bowery description, . ^
it was assumed that the Havana man 3
had become over enthused with 1
aguardiente, and the dispatch wa? i
eniL-oH X rpalizatinn nf what the 1
? ~"lcorrespondent
was trying to tell his |.
office came when the Herald's full
page account was published on the
ensuing morning.
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TAX NOTICE.
The treasurer's office will be open
for the collection of State, county,
school and all other taxes from the
loth day of October, 1921, until the
15th day of March, 1922, inclusive.
From the first day of January,
1922, until the 31st day of January,
1922, a penalty of 1 per cent, will be
added to all unpaid taxes. From the
first day of February, 1922, until the
28th day of February, 1922, a penalty
nf 9 ru>r rpnt will bp added to all un
paid taxes. From the first day of
March, 1922, untirthe 15it*h of March,
1922, a penalty of 7 per cent, will "be
added to all unpaid taxes.
The Levy.
For State purposes 12 mills
For county purposes 7% mills !
Constitutional school tax ....3 mills '
For highway purposes 2 mills
Total 24% mills
Special School Levies.
Bamberg, No. 14 18 mills
Binnaker's, No. 12 3 mills
Buford's Bridge, No. 7 .... 4 mills
Clear Pond, No. 19 L 2 mills
Colston, No. 18 9 mills
Denmark, No. 21 16 mills
Ehrhardt, No. 22 ....19 mills
Fish Pond, No. 5 2 mills
Govan, No. 11 12 mills
Hwtto, No. 6 6 mills
Hampton, No. 3 2 mills
Heyward, No. 24 2 mills
Hopewell, No. 1 3 mills
Hunter's Chapel, No. 16 ....12 mills
Lees, No. 23 8 mills
Little Swamp, No. 17 ? 8 mills
Lemon Swamp, No. 13 n... 4 mills 1
Midway, No. 2 2 mills
Oakland, No. 15 8 mills
Oak Grove, No. 20 10 mills
Olar, No. 8 16 mills ,
St. John's, No. 10 8 mills
Salem, No. 9 12 mills (
Three-Mile, No. 4 8 mills '
All persons between the ages of 2i
and 60 years, except Confederate soldiers
and sailors, who are exempt at
50 years, are liable to a poll tax of
$1.00.
Capitation dog tax, $1.25. ]
All male persons who were 21 years <
of age on or before the first day of i
January, 1921, are liable to a poll 1
tax of $1, and all who have not made ]
returns to the auditor are requested ]
to do so on or before the first day !
of January, 1922, and thereby save
penalty and costs.
I will receive the commutaitdon road
tax of four ($4.00) dollars from the
15th day of October, 1921, to the !
15th day of March, 1922.
In addition to the above levies
there is a three mill levy for drain- ]
age on all property in the town of ;
Bamberg and some of the surround- 1
ing territory. . ;
G. A. JENNINGS, |]
Treasurer or tfamoerg uoumy.
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Both remedies are packed in one carton and the
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Just ask your druggist for HAYES'
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NOTICE CONCERNING PLOWING
IN PUBLIC ROOADS.
i
Pursuant to recommendation of r
the Bamberg County Grand Jury, the
landowners of the county cultivating \ 'in
lands adjacent and adjoining public
roads are hereby urgently requested
not to plow into or allow their hands
to plow into the roads. Landowners
jtp rAniipstfid to Dlant two or three
-ows of crops adjacent to roads parallel
with the road, so that there may
be proper turning space without the
lecessity of turning plows in the
roads. It is against the law to alow
plows to damage the roads,
md it is an unnecessary prac- yg
;ice. The county spends large sums 7a
)f money in road building, and the
-oads belong to the people. I have
10 desire to prosecute anybody, but
[ must insist that this practice be f
stopped immediately. The farmers
ind tenants can cooperate in this respect,
and there should be no necessity
to bring action against anybody.
5*1111 notice is being given before I
ake such action.
W. B. SMOAK,
Supervisor* fcf
January 31, 1922. tf