Lost Or Missing 253

Washington, Feb. 17.- While Secretary Long was with the president today the following detailed dispatch frcm Captain Sigsbee( commander ot the Maine, ws brought to him: "Advise sending wreeking vessel at once. Maine submerged except debris; mostly work for divers now. Jenkins and Merritt still missing. Little hope for their safety. Those known to be saved are: Officers, 24; uninjured crew, IS; wounded now on board Ward Line steamer, in city 'hospital and at hotel, 59, so far as known. All others went down on board or near the Maine. The total lost or missing, 253. "With severa! exceptions no officei or man has more than part of a suit oí clothing, and that is wet with harbor water. Ward steamer leaves fot Mexico at 2 this afternoon. Officers saved are uninjured. Damage was in eompartments of crew. Am preparing to telegraph list of wounded and saved. Olivette leaves for eKy West at 1 p. m. Will send by her to Key West the officers saved, except myself and Wainwright. Holman, Henneberger, Ray and Holden will turn over three uninjured boats to captain of port, with request for safe keeping. Will send all wounded men to hospital at Havana. SIQSBEE." Secretary Long, for the President, has sent this telegram to Captain Sigsbee: "Sigsbee, XI. S. S. Maine, Havana: The President directs me to express for himself and the people of the United tates his profound sympathy with the officers and crew of the Maine, and desires that no expense be spared in providing for the survivors and the care of the dead. JOHN D. LONG, Secretary." At 11:20 o'clock Secretary Long rec&ived the following unsigned telegram f rom Havana: "Only two officers unaccounted for. The explosión was forward, to all indications, in the magazine, but can not teil until an investigation had. The sentry on the poop deck reports that there were no boats in the vicinity when the explosión occurred." Another telegram to Secretary Long ' from George Bronson Rea, said to be ' a newspaper correspondent, said: i "No excitement. All quiet. Only i feelings of sympapthy and sorrow for ' the accident." There was no smokeless powder on board the ship, and the ten-inch ammunition was made up of brown, prismatic powders. Not only is this powder most carefully packed in hermetically sealed copper cases, but its heatresisting qualities are so great that it can not be ignited by the flame of a match, 600 degrees Fahrenheit being the amount of heat that must be applied for some time to set off the powder. On the other hand, it is readily ignited, as in the case of the charge in the gun, by the explosión of a good quantity of fulminate. Every precaution is adopted aboard ship to safeguard the magazine.