USS Maine (ACR-1)

USS Maine

Career
Authorized:	3 August 1886
Laid down:	17 October 1888
Launched:	18 November 1889
Commissioned:	17 September 1895
Fate:	Sunk by explosion 15 February 1898
General Characteristics
Displacement:	6,682 t
Length:	319 ft (97 m)
Beam:	57 ft (17.4 m)
Draft:	22 ft (6.7 m)
Speed:	17 knots (31 km/h)
Complement:	374 officers and men
Armament:	4 x 10 in (250 mm) guns, 6 x 6 in (150 mm) guns, 7 x 6 pounders (3 kg), 8 x 1 pounders (0.5 kg), 4 x 14 in (350 mm) surface torpedo tubes

USS Maine (ACR-1), the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the state of Maine, was a 6682-ton second-class pre-dreadnought battleship originally designated as Armored Cruiser #1.

Congress authorized her construction on August 3 1886, and her keel was laid down on October 17 1888, at the New York Navy Yard. She was launched on November 18 1889, sponsored by Miss Alice Tracey Wilmerding (granddaughter of Secretary Benjamin F. Tracy), and commissioned on September 17 1895, under the command of Captain A.S. Crowninshield.

Her active career was spent operating along the U.S. East coast and in the Caribbean area. In January 1898, the Maine was sent from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba, to protect U.S. interests during a time of local insurrection and civil disturbances. Three weeks later, at 9:40 on the evening of February 15, a terrible explosion on board the Maine shattered the stillness in Havana Harbor. Later investigations revealed that more than five tons of powder charges for the vessel's six and ten-inch guns ignited, virtually obliterating the forward third of the ship. The remaining wreckage rapidly settled to the bottom of the harbor. Most of the Maine's crew were sleeping or resting in the enlisted quarters in the forward part of the ship when the explosion occurred. Two hundred and sixty-six men lost their lives as a result of the explosion or shortly thereafter, and eight more died later from injuries. Captain Sigsbee and most of the officers survived because their quarters were in the aft portion of the ship. On March 28, the US Naval Court of Inquiry in Key West declared that a naval mine caused the explosion.

The explosion was a precipitating cause of the Spanish-American War that began in April 1898 and which used the rallying cry, "Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain." At the time, it was used as pretext for war by those who were already inclined to go to war with Spain.

On August 5 1910, Congress authorized the raising of the Maine to remove it as a navigation hazard in Havana Harbor. On February 2 1912, she was refloated under supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers and towed out to sea where she was sunk in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico on March 16 1912, with appropriate military honors and ceremonies.

In 1914, one of the Maine's six anchors was taken from the Washington Navy Yard to City Park in Reading, Pa., and dedicated during a ceremony presided over by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was then assistant secretary of the Navy.

In 1976, Admiral Hyman Rickover of the United States Navy published an investigation that concluded that the tragedy was self-inflicted, probably the result of a coal bunker fire. Some historians have disputed these findings, maintaining that failure to detect spontaneous combustion in the coal bunker was highly unlikely. Other people maintain that the Maine was the victim of sabotage or sacrificed to rally public opinion against Spain.

In an expedition in 1998, the National Geographic Society explored the wreck and commissioned a structural analysis by Advanced Marine Enterprises. They determined that the explosion could have been internal; the theory they embraced was that an undetected smoldering coal fire had ignited volatile coal dust in the air, creating a small explosion that touched off the nearby powder magazine. However, AME also said damage to the bottom plating and seafloor could be consistent with an external mine, thus hedging the findings.

There is a memorial to those who died at the Arlington National Cemetery, which includes the ship's main mast. There is also a memorial, consisting of the shield and scrollwork from the bow of the ship, in Bangor, Maine. The fore mast of the Maine is located at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. There is a traditional in-joke among midshipmen at the Academy that the Maine, with its main mast in Eastern Virginia and its fore mast in Central Maryland, is the longest ship in the Navy.

Causes of the sinking

The facts

Because of the uproar the sinking of the Maine caused in the United States, President McKinley demanded an investigation into the cause of the explosions immediately. A U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry arrived in Havana and began its investigation. Survivors and eyewitnesses testified for the court, and several navy divers explored the sunken ship, hoping to find clues as to what may have caused the disaster. All parties involved concluded without a doubt that the explosion of the forward six-inch ammunition magazines had caused the sinking. Why those magazines had exploded, no one could determine conclusively, and doubt remains as to the exact cause to this day. There have been four major investigations into the sinking since 1898. From the four inquiries, two theories have emerged: one, that a mine in Havana Harbor had exploded underneath the battleship, causing the explosion of the magazines; and two, that spontaneous combustion of the coal in bunker A16 created a fire that detonated the nearby magazines.

External mine theory

The theory that a mine, allegedly planted by the Spanish as a way to deter the efforts of the United States to take Cuba, is the assumption that most Americans came to immediately after the sinking, because it provided the stimulus for war that the U.S. had been quietly seeking. However, all parties now recognize that even if a mine had been involved in the sinking of the Maine, the Spanish government had nothing to do with it, because it would have been unreasonable for Spain to provoke an attack and bring itself into a war where it would most certainly lose its last precious colonies in the Western Hemisphere. Rather, the mine could have been placed to defend the harbor and unintentionally drifted to where the Maine was moored. Alternatively, the mine could have been used by Cuban rebels in the hopes that the attack on the Maine would be blamed on the Spanish and so trigger a war between the United States and Spain.

Some key evidence indicates that the cause of the sinking was an external mine. First, many of the witnesses stated that they heard two distinct explosions several seconds apart. If anything else besides a mine had triggered the magazine explosion, then witnesses would have only heard one blast, because the only explosion would have been of the magazines. The only reason that two explosions would have been heard is if something besides the magazine had exploded, such as a mine. A coal bunker fire would have caused the magazines to explode, but it would not have caused an additional explosion.

Another piece of evidence of an external mine was the observations of divers who examined the bottom plates of the Maine. These bottom plates were all bent inward. If an internal explosion had occurred, the bottom plates would have been bent outward, away from the explosion. An external blast would have blown the plates inward, consistent with the evidence. A large hole in the side of the hull was also observed with the edges bent inward. On the floor of Havana Harbor, a large hole was noticed, presumably from the explosion, although it could be argued that an explosion of that magnitude would have put a hole in the harbor floor, regardless of whether the explosion was internal or external.

Two problems with the external mine theory remain. One is the absence of dead fish in Havana Harbor the next day. Assuming that fish lived in the polluted waters of the harbor, many of them should have been killed if a mine exploded in their habitat, but no one reported seeing any floating in the harbor. Also, no one reported seeing a geyser of water thrown up during the explosion, a common sight when mines explode underwater. Many feel that if an external explosion had occurred, it most certainly would have been coupled with a geyser.

Coal bunker fire theory

Since the time of the explosion in 1898, many advocates stating that an internal explosion had sunk the Maine based their conclusion on the coal bunker fire theory. Supporters of this theory believe that spontaneous combustion of the coal in bunker A16 created a fire that detonated the nearby magazines. Spontaneous combustion of coal was a fairly frequent problem on ships built after the American Civil War. This type of fire occurs when the surfaces of freshly broken coal are exposed to air. The coal surface oxidizes, producing heat. When the coal reaches a temperature of about 180 degrees, the coal will begin to burn. The heat from the fire could have transferred to the magazines, which would have triggered the explosion.

Spontaneous combustion was not an uncommon problem on ships built in the latter part of the 19th century. Several ships sustained damage during the Spanish-American War when the bituminous coal in their bunkers ignited. These fires were difficult to detect because they could smolder for hours at low heat, giving off no smoke or flame or raising the temperature high enough to trigger the alarm systems on board these ships. Reports indicate that the last time bunker A16 had been inspected was at 8:00 a.m. on February 15, so there was ample time for a coal bunker fire to smolder into a disaster.

However, several problems exist with the coal bunker fire theory. The Maine never had an instance of spontaneous combustion on board, as did so many other ships of that time, and out of all the ships that had experienced spontaneous combustion, none was reported to have sustained serious damage. The type of coal carried by the Maine was New River coal, which is classified as low volatile bituminous coal and was not generally known to spontaneously combust. Bunker A16 was not situated by a boiler or any other external heat source, and normally spontaneous combustion does not occur unless there is a heat source to speed up the process. When Bunker A16 was inspected the morning of the disaster, the temperature was only 59 degrees Fahrenheit, and the Maines' oversensitive temperature sensor system did not indicate any dangerous rise in temperature. The discipline on the Maine was excellent, and regular inspections of coal bunkers for hazards, as well as the implementation of precautions for preventing bunker fires, were diligently carried out under the supervision of the cautious executive officer of the Maine, Richard Wainwright. These idiosyncrasies related to the coal bunker fire theory are what give rise to the constant debate of this argument’s legitimacy.

The investigations

Four major investigations have been conducted to find the actual cause of the sinking of the Maine. Two Naval Courts of Inquiry were held in 1898 and 1911, and two major private investigations commissioned by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover in 1976 and the National Geographic in 1999, all revealed different conclusions. The debates on the sinking of the Maine rest on evidence uncovered through these four investigations.

1898 Court of Inquiry

Immediately after the sinking in 1898, President William McKinley ordered a naval inquiry into what caused the Maine to explode. This 1898 Court of Inquiry headed by Captain William T. Sampson began its work on February 21. Survivors and eyewitnesses testified for the court, and several navy divers explored the sunken ship, hoping to find clues as to what may have caused the disaster. The Sampson Board concluded that the Maine had been blown up by a mine, which in turn caused the explosion of her forward magazines. The official report from the board, which was presented to the Navy Department in Washington on March 25, specifically stated that, “The court has been unable to obtain evidence fixing the responsibility for the destruction of the Maine upon any person or persons.” This, of course, did not stop the U.S. from pinning the destruction on the Spanish, and war was declared one month later.

1911 Court of Inquiry

By 1908, the war drums had long stopped beating, and many parties demanded that the Maine be raised from Havana Harbor. Cuban officials became worried about the safety of having a sunken ship in their harbor, U.S. officials wanted the remains of the sailors trapped in the wreck recovered and buried, and everyone wanted to confirm the cause of the sinking. The Maine was raised in December 1910, and a Court of Inquiry headed by Rear Admiral Charles E. Vreeland went to work. Sections of the hull of the Maine were numbered, many photographs were taken, and models of the Maine and her wreckage were built. The conclusions of the Vreeland Board differed with the Sampson Board only in detail. The Vreeland Board stated that the explosion of the magazines was triggered by an external blast, but the damage to the Maine was much more extensive than the Sampson Board had thought. It was also concluded that the blast occurred further aft on the ship, and a lower powered explosive caused the damage than was originally established. After the investigation, the dead were buried in Arlington National Cemetery and the wreck of the Maine was scuttled at sea.

1976 Rickover investigation

The argument was not touched for another half a century, until a private investigation in 1976 was triggered by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover after he read a newspaper article on the sinking. He and several officials from the U.S. Navy launched an investigation based on the evidence collected during the two Courts of Inquiry. Rickover believed that the new knowledge collected since World War II on analyzing ships destroyed by internal and external explosions would shed new light on the sinking of the Maine. The Rickover analysis came to a completely different conclusion than the Courts of Inquiry. Rickover believed that the explosion of the magazines was caused by a coal bunker fire, which had heated the magazines to the point of explosion. His 23-page book published in 1976 ends with the line, “In conclusion: There is no evidence that a mine destroyed the Maine.” The world accepted this new conclusion, and for more than a quarter of a century, the coal bunker fire theory reigned over the external mine theory.

1999 National Geographic investigation

In 1999, to commemorate the centennial of the sinking of the Maine, National Geographic Magazine commissioned an analysis by Advanced Marine Enterprises, using computer modeling that was not available for previous investigations. The AME analysis examined both theories and concluded that “it appears more probable than was previously concluded that a mine caused the inward bent bottom structure and the detonation of the magazines.” Some experts, including some of Admiral Rickover’s team and several analysts at AME, do not agree with the conclusion, and the fury over new findings even spurred a heated 90-minute debate at the 124th annual meeting of the U.S. Naval Institute.

Unsolved mystery

The day after the Maine was sunk in Havana Harbor, Assistant Secretary to the Navy Theodore Roosevelt stated that “we shall never find out definitely” the cause of the disaster. Without the video or audio evidence that experts have come to rely on when investigating disasters like this, the truth may never be known for certain. It seems as if the debate could go on for years, even sparking an equally lively bicentennial debate on the topic.

Some other US ships attacked by foreign forces in times of "peace"

Usually the sinking of the Lusitania is cited as an example of coal dust explosion. However, the data on this putative "coal dust explosion' is not nearly conclusive since the wreck was shown to have a torpedo hole and at the time the coal hypothesis was advanced the sunken ship was falling apart. However, attacks on USN ships in peace time are far from unknown (see below).

This list excludes the undeclared Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor.

USS Philadelphia (1799) attacked by Barbary pirates captured but burned by Stephen Decatur

USS Chesapeake--June 22, 1807, the British frigate H.M.S. Leopard attacked and boarded the US Naval ship USS Chesapeake ^*.

USS Panay (Dec. 12, 1937), USS Tutuila (July 30, 1941), USS Greer (Sept. 4, 1941, USS Kearny (Oct. 17, 1941), USS Salinas (October 30, 1941), USS Reuben James (Oct. 31, 1941) ^*

A series of US owned cargo ships (usually sailing under Panama flag) [http://www.usmm.org/casualty.html before US entered WW II.

The SS Mayaguez was attacked on May 12, 1975 by Cambodia.

USS Liberty (1967)
USS Pueblo (Jan. 23, 1968)
USS Stark (1987)
USS Samuel B. Roberts (April 14,1988)
USS Cole (Oct. 12, 2000) http://www.historyguy.com/attacks_on_us_naval_ships.htm]

External links

Background information on the Maine: http://www.spanamwar.com/maine.htm
Theories on the loss of the Maine: http://www.spanamwar.com/Mainemo1.htm
Official 1898 Court of Inquiry Report: http://www.spanamwar.com/mainerpt.htm
How Likely was a Coal Bunker Fire Aboard the Battleship MAINE?: http://www.spanamwar.com/mainecoal.html
What Really Sank the Maine? (Naval History Magazine, April 1998): http://www.usni.org/navalhistory/articles98/nhallen.htm
http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/img/maine1.jpg
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/maine.htm
http://www.usni.org/NavalHistory/Articles98/NHallen.htm
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.com/ussmaine.htm

Cuban-American relations | International maritime incidents | Spanish-American War ships of the United States | Spanish-American War Battleships of the United States Navy

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