Maine, Sinking of the USS
Maine, Sinking of the USS (1898).In January 1898, Spain was winning its war against Cuban insurrectionists, but faced pressure from U.S. president William McKinley to make concessions. When in response to reforms from Madrid, Spanish officers and Cuban loyalists rioted in Havana, U.S. consul Fitzhugh Lee requested a warship to protect American lives and property. There was also concern about rumored Spanish intentions to turn Cuba over to Germany. These circumstances induced McKinley to dispatch the USS Maine a second‐class battleship (its keel was laid in 1888, but it was not commissioned until 1895) to Havana.
The Maine arrived off Havana on 25 January; Spanish authorities reluctantly allowed her entry to the harbor and assigned an anchorage. On the night of 15 February, an explosion ripped the ship's hull open, and she sank with over 260 men (two‐thirds of her complement) killed....
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