Three men were doing punishment watch on the port quarter-deck, and thus probably escaped death. One sailor swam about until help came, although both his legs were broken. Another had the bones of his ankle crushed, and yet managed to keep afloat. Two hours or more passed before the unsubmerged, wooden portion of the wreck had been consumed by the flames, and at 11.30 P. M. the smoke-stacks of the ill-fated ship fell. On board the steamer _City of Washington_, two boats were literally riddled by fragments of the _Maine_ which fell after the explosion, and among them was an iron truss which, crashing through the pantry, demolished the tableware. When morning came the wreck was the central figure of an otherwise bright picture, sad as it was terrible. The huge mass of flame-charred débris forward looked as if it had been thrown up from a subterranean storehouse of fused cement, steel, wood, and iron. Further aft, one military mast protruded at a slight angle from the perpendicular, while the poop afforded a resting-place for the workmen or divers. Of the predominant white which distinguishes our war-vessels in time of peace, not a vestige remained. In its place was the blackness of desolating death, marking the spot where two hundred and sixty-six brave men had gone over into the Beyond. The total loss to the government as a result of the disaster was officially pronounced to be $4,689,261.31. This embraced the cost of hull, machinery, equipment, armour, gun protection and armament, both in main and secondary batteries. It included the cost of ammunition, shells, current supplies, coal, and, in short, the entire outfit. The pet of the _Maine’s_ crew, a big cat, was found next morning, perched on a fragment of a truss which yet remained above the water, and near her, as if seeking companionship, was the captain’s dog, Peggy. Consul-General Lee cabled from Havana on the afternoon of the sixteenth: “Profound sorrow is expressed by the government and municipal authorities, consuls of foreign nations, organised bodies of all sorts, and citizens generally. “Flags are at half-mast on the governor-general’s palace, on shipping in the harbour, and in the city. “Business is suspended, and the theatres are closed.” On the afternoon of the seventeenth the bodies which had been found up to that time were buried in Havana with military honours, two companies of Spanish sailors from the cruiser _Alphonso XII._ acting as escort. A board of inquiry, composed of Capt. W. T. Sampson of the U. S. S. _Iowa_ as presiding officer, Commander Adolph Marix as judge advocate, Capt. F. E. Chadwick, and Commander W. P. Potter, all of the _New York_, was convened, and on March 28th President McKinley sent a message to Congress, the conclusion of which was as follows: