the court of inquiry was reached, after twenty-three days
of continuous labor, on the 21st of March instant, and, having been
approved on the 22d by the commander in chief of the United States naval
force on the North Atlantic station, was transmitted to the Executive.

It is herewith laid before the Congress, together with the voluminous
testimony taken before the court.

Its purport is, in brief, as follows:

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 5-1/2
to 6 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 8 o'clock in the evening of February 15 everything had been reported
secure, and all was quiet.

At forty minutes past 9 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 moments
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 11-1/2 feet from
the middle line of the ship and 6 feet above the keel when in its normal
position, has been forced up so as to be now about 4 feet above the
surface of the water, therefore about 34 feet above where it would be
had the ship sunk uninjured.

The outside bottom plating is bent into a reversed V shape (*A), the
after wing of which, about 15 feet broad and 32 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 6 feet below the surface of the water and about
30 feet above its normal position.

In the opini