Message to the Congress Recommending Appropriation for Prosecution of Work of Removing the Wreck of the Battleship Maine

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

On July 26, 1911, there was transmitted to the Congress by my direction a report by the Acting Chief of Engineers, inclosing a report of the board charged “with the work of raising or removal of the wreck of the battleship Maine in Habana Harbor.” Since that date the Secretary of War, at my request, has visited Habana Harbor and personally inspected the wreck, and has reported to me the result of his inspection and conference with the said board of engineers in charge in Habana. I transmit herewith his report, with the accompanying documents.

I concur fully in the conclusions which the Secretary of War has reached and in the recommendations which he makes in respect of an additional appropriation for this work in order that nothing may remain undone to enable the world to know the original cause of the explosion of the Maine. Of course if it shall turn out that the most thorough excavation will not disclose the cause we must be content, but as long as there remains unexcavated any portion of the mud and debris within the wreck or its neighborhood from which evidence may be had of the original cause of the disaster, we shall be derelict in our duty in not prosecuting a further search. The issue is not now whether we ought originally to have begun this investigation, but it is whether, having expended a very large part of the necessary amount to do the full work, we ought to break it off for lack of a comparatively small additional appropriation.

I earnestly hope that Congress will take immediate action in this regard, as recommended by the Secretary of War.

WILLIAM H. TAFT.

The White House, August 21, 1911.