in was on watch as officer of
the deck; Captain Sigsbee sat in his cabin writing letters; on the
starboard side of the ship, made fast to the boom, was the steam cutter,
with her crew on board waiting to make the regular ten o'clock trip to the
shore to bring off such of the officers or crew as were on leave of
absence.

The night was unusually dark; great banks of thick clouds hung over the
city and harbour; the ripple of the waves against the hulls of the vessels
at anchor, and the subdued hum of voices, alone broke the silence. The
lights here and there, together with the dark tracery of spar and cordage
against the sky, was all that betokened the presence of war-ship or
peaceful merchantman.

Suddenly, and when the silence was most profound, the watch on board the
steamer _City of Washington_, and some sailors ashore, saw what appeared
to be a sheet of fire flash up in the water directly beneath the _Maine_,
and even as the blinding glare was in their eyes came a mighty, confused
rumble as of grinding and rending, followed an instant later by a roar as
if a volcano had sprung into activity beneath the waves of the harbour.

Then was flung high in the air what might be likened to a shaft of fire
filled with fragments of iron, wood, and human flesh, rising higher and
higher until its force was spent, when it fell outwardly as falls a column
of water broken by the wind.

The earth literally trembled; the air suddenly became heavy with stifling
smoke. Electric lights on shore were extinguished; the tinkling of
breaking glass could be heard everywhere in that portion of the city
nearest the harbour.

When the shower of fragments and of fire ceased to fall a dense blackness
enshrouded the harbour, from the midst of which could be heard cries of
agony, appeals for help, and the shouts of those who, even while
struggling to save their own lives, would cheer their comrades.

After this, and no man could have said how many seconds passed while the
confusing, bewildering blackness lay heavy over that scene of death and
destruction, long tongues of flame burst up from the torn and splintered
decks of the doomed battle-ship, a signal of distress, as well as a beacon
for those who would succour the dying.

Captain Sigsbee, recovering in the briefest space of time from the
bewilderment of the shock, ran out of the cabin toward the deck, groping
his way as best he might in the darkness through the long passage until he
came