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"Remember the Maine"
The explosion that launched the US on the path to becoming a world power.
The sinking of the USS Battleship Maine catapulted
the United States into war with Spain. Anchored in Havana Harbor, Cuba,
the Maine suddenly exploded at 9:40 PM on February
15, 1898. The blast ripped open the forward hull, quickly sending the
ship to the bottom of the harbor and killing two hundred sixty-six of
her 345 crew members.
The tragedy took place in a politically charged atmosphere. Cuba, a Spanish
colony, had been in rebellion since 1895. The brutal Spanish response turned
American sympathies to the Cuban insurgents. The Maine arrived
in January with a dual mission - to protect American interests and as a
show of force to the Spanish. The sinking brought American public opinion
to a war-fever pitch, inflamed by an anti-Spanish press.
A Naval Board of Inquiry attributed the sinking to an external explosion - a conclusion interpreted by many as meaning a mine placed beneath the
ship. A simultaneous Spanish investigation suggested that spontaneous combustion
of coal stored in the hold ignited nearby ammunition. A Navy study conducted
years later (1976), supported this conclusion. In 1898, however, the finger
of blame pointed to Spanish treachery. The United States declared war on
Spain on April 25, 1898.
Related article: The United
States Declares War on Spain, 1898. "[The President] broke down and cried like a boy of thirteen." President
McKinley reluctantly asks Congress to declare war.
References: Rickover, H.G.,
How the Battleship Maine was Destroyed (1976).
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