ut, after long weeks of careful study of the evidence, the
Naval Board of Inquiry presented the following report:

When the "Maine" arrived at Havana, she was conducted by the
regular Government pilot to buoy No. 4, to which she was moored
in from five to six fathoms of water.

The state of discipline on board, and the condition of her
magazines, boilers, coal-bunkers, and storage compartments, are
passed in review, with the conclusion that excellent order
prevailed, and that no indication of any cause for an internal
explosion existed in any quarter.

At eight o'clock on the evening of February 15 everything had
been reported secure, and all was quiet. At 9.40 o'clock the
vessel was suddenly destroyed.

There were two distinct explosions, with a brief interval between
them. The first lifted the forward part of the ship very
perceptibly; the second, which was more open, prolonged, and of
greater volume, is attributed by the Court to the partial
explosion of two or more of the forward magazines.

The evidence of the divers establishes that the after-part of the
ship was practically intact, and sank in that condition a very
few minutes after the explosion. The forward part was completely
demolished.

Upon the evidence of a concurrent external cause the finding of
the Court is as follows:

At frame 17 the outer shell of the ship, from a point eleven and
one-half feet from the middle line of the ship and six feet above
the keel when in its natural position, has been forced up so as
to be now about four feet above the surface of the water;
therefore, about thirty-four feet above where it would be had the
ship sunk uninjured.

The outside bottom plating is bent into a reversed V-shape, the
after-wing of which, about fifteen feet broad and thirty-two feet
in length (from frame 17 to frame 25), is doubled back upon
itself against the continuation of the same plating extending
forward.

At frame 18 the vertical keel is broken in two and the flat keel
bent into an angle similar to the angle formed by the outside
bottom plates. This break is now about six feet below the surface
of the water and about thirty feet above its normal position.

In the opinion of the Court, this effect could have been produced
only by the explosion