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CHAPTER III.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MAINE.

BY

LIEUT. GEO. F. W. HOLMAN, U. S. N.

T

HE destruction of the Maine in the harbor of Havana,
Cuba, on February 15, 1898, is an event occupying a

middle place between the long series of incidents connected with the struggles of the Cubans for release from the galling rule of Spain and the beginning of the actual war in which, as a result of the Cuban struggles, the United States finally became involved. Spain strenuously disavowed having caused, either officially or ultra-officially, the annihilation of this powerful battleship, and indeed, claimed, through its Court of Inquiry investigating the circumstances, that the Maine was destroyed by causes entirely internal, namely, the accidental explosion of one or more of her magazines. The United States, on the other hand, after a most thorough investigation of twenty-three days of patient labor by a Court of Inquiry composed of some of the most scientific men of the Navy, presided over by Captain Sampson, who soon after became the Admiral of glorious victories in the East, reached the conclusion that the loss of the battleship was due, not to internal causes, but to the springing of a mine planted in close proximity to the moorings which had been assigned her, in the harbor, by the Spanish officials. This finding of the Court of Inquiry of the United States was most conclusively substantiated by the condition of the wreck above and below water, which gave evidence that, although one or more magazines had exploded, throwing upward and outward heavy masses of the decks and sides of the ship, the primary source of damage originated from a mine exploded beneath the vessel's bottom, as manifested by the principal fact that the keel had been thrown upward in an inverted V shape and broken、 in two with the break remaining about thirty feet above its normal position; by the further principal fact that the outside bottom plating was bent inward from outward in a reversed V shape; by the still further principal fact that the outer shell of the ship, on the port forward side, had been thrown upward to a point about thirty-four feet above its normal position; and by many other facts impossible to have been produced save by a submarine mine. A full report of the Court of Inquiry was transmitted to our Congress by the President of the United States in his Message of March 28, 1898.

While the people of the United States were intensely inflamed by the outrage, and desired war at once, believing, with the greater part of the world, that the disaster was attributable to an outside source and not to internal accident, they nevertheless followed the counsels of their leaders and patiently awaited the result of the cool investigation ordered by them; and when, after over two months of waiting, war was finally declared, the nation was content to accept the judgment of the President, which based the war on broad humanitarian principles for the liberation of an oppressed people, and cited the Maine disaster as merely an incident, one among many, that finally led to the inevitable struggle between the United States and Spain.

To go back a little, the sympathies of the people of the United States, always in favor of the Cubans as against Spain, had become pronounced to such an extent in the debates in our Congress and in the articles of the press, that between the public of the United States and that of Spain a great animosity and a strong desire for immediate hostilities developed, which required tactful exertions on the part of the diplomatic corps of both countries to keep in repression. Among other acts of conciliation adopted by our government was the discontinuance, with regard to Cuba, of the practice in vogue among all civilized nations from times of long ago-that of sending men-of-war on amicable visits to the ports of foreign nations. Realizing the possibility that the appearance of one of our war vessels in a Cuban

port during the period of strained relations between the United States and Spain might be regarded by the ignorant class of the latter country as a menace, and might consequently occasion a pretext for an outbreak of the unruly mob, our government refrained from despatching our ships of war to Cuban waters for any purpose whatever; but a time arrived when it was believed to be advisable to act otherwise in this respect.

In January, 1898, the relations between the Spaniards under arms and the Spaniards not enrolled as combatants, many on both sides being classed, on the one hand, as adherents of the aggressive General Weyler, and, on the other, as those of the more pacific General Blanco, together with the further confusion caused by the acts of the Cubans themselves represented by diverse parties and interests, led to rioting in the City of Havana, which, never becoming serious, nevertheless threatened the safety and property of all people within its limits. For the protection of American citizens and their interests it became obligatory on our government to display our flag in the troubled region. Our State Department acted through correspondence with the State Department of Spain in this direction with a careful regard for the peculiarities of the situation. The result of the diplomatic correspondence between the two governments was that the best interests of both countries would be observed by sending a man-of-war of the United States to Havana on a visit of a thoroughly amicable nature. The Spanish, in turn, intimated their intention of returning the courtesy by sending one of their battleships on a similiar visit to New York. The ship chosen by the United States for this interchange of visits was the battleship Maine. The Spaniards, on their part, selected the armored cruiser Vizcaya.

The Maine, built at the New York Navy Yard, was a secondclass battleship, which went into commission September 17, 1895; she was a powerful vessel, as shown by the following details of structure, armament, and personnel :-Extreme length, 324 feet; beam, 57 feet; draught, 22 feet I inch; displacement, 6,650 tons; horse power, 9,290; speed, 17.45 knots; she was subdivided into 214 water-tight compartments. Her armor

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