It is seldom that one man in a lifetime—even a lifetime of 78 years— engages in as many stirring events as fell to the lot of Rear Admiral Charles Dwight Sigsbee, U. S. N., retired. He died last week in Manhattan, where he had lived since his retirement in 1907, and general notice was taken of the death of the man who commanded the Maine at the time of its sinking in Havana harbor.
But Admiral Sigsbee had many other titles to distinction. After his graduation from Annapolis in 1863, he fought with Damn-the-Torpedoes Farragut at Mobile Bay. The next year he engaged in the storming of Fort Fisher. Following the Civil War, at only 23, he was made a Lieutenant Commander, and in the years prior to 1898 took part in many activities—served with the Asiatic Squadron, taught at Annapolis, invented instruments for deep sea sounding, drew cartoons for the Daily Graphic of New York. At one time, in command of the Blake, he made a considerable stir. The vessel was anchored off a reef when a severe storm broke. The anchors gave way and the ship drifted toward the reef. Faced with the loss of the ship, he deliberately scuttled her. Instead of pounding to pieces on the reef, she sank on a sandy bottom and was later raised and put in service.
In the late Winter of 1898 he took the Maine into Havana harbor. The Spanish authorities there were hostile to this country because of the demands that President McKinley was making for Cuban autonomy. The people in the city were many of them hostile to the revolution going on in the outlying districts. On a Sunday Captain Sigsbee and the American Consul General attended a bull fight to discover popular sentiment. Soldiers guarded their box. The situation was tense. On the 15th of February, after the Maine had been in port about two weeks, the Spanish authorities asked the Consul General to have the Maine depart, because if she remained disorders might result. The Consul General cabled the information to Washington.
That evening, ignorant of this event, Captain Sigsbee retired to his cabin about eight o’clock to write a letter to his wife. Most of the crew of 328 and the 36 officers were already asleep. He finished his letter and was sealing it when a great explosion shook the ship and she immediately began to list. The Captain rushed to the deck and amid the confusion issued orders to post sentries to repel boarders. There were no boarders, but the forward magazines had exploded and the Maine quickly sank in the waters of the harbor, carrying with her 262 men and two officers.
Captain Sigsbee cabled to Washington urging that judgment be suspended. It was largely on that account that war was not declared immediately. It was not until over two months later, and not officially on account of the Maine, that hostilities were commenced. Captain Sigsbee then and afterward believed that the explosion of the magazines was brought about by a mine. When the Maine was raised in 1911, it was definitely established that the explosion of the magazines had sunk the ship, but the greater explosion had completely removed all possible traces of the lesser explosion, if any, which ignited the magazines. Responsibility for the disaster can never be fixed, but it is now generally agreed that the Spanish Government itself was not responsible for the sinking, although certain subordinates may have been involved.
Later in the war Captain Sigsbee rendered notable service in command of the auxiliary cruiser St. Pawl. He captured the collier Restormel carrying coal to Cervera’s fleet, as well as the cruiser Isabella II and the destroyer Terror.
Before he retired he was made Rear Admiral, and one of his last commissions was to take the North Atlantic Cruiser Squadron to France to bring back the body of John Paul Jones.
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