PLEASE HELP I was enclosing my letter in its envelope when the explosion came. It was a bursting, rending, and crashing sound or roar of immense volume, largely metallic in character. . . . The electric lights, of which there were eight in the cabin where I was sitting, went out. Then there was intense blackness and smoke.

Read Captain Charles D. Sigsbee’s account of the sinking of the USS Maine, given in 1899.

This is a reliable source mainly because

it is dated 1899, which was only a year after the ship’s sinking.
it is based on secondhand information about the Maine sinking.
it appeared in a fictional story about the sinking of the Maine.
it was written by a person who was on board during the sinking.
A
B
C
D