The Mystery of the Maine.

• Author: BEAUDOIN, JACK
• Position: History of the Spanish-American War, 1898 - Brief Article

When a U.S. ship blew up in Cuba in 1898, its name became a battle cry in a war against Spain. But was Spain really to blame?

The sudden explosion rocked the harbor and lit up the skies. At 9:40 p.m. on February 15, 1898, the battleship U.S.S. Maine blew up in the water off Havana, Cuba, killing 266 American sailors.

The blast that destroyed the Maine produced what one witness called "a great column of fire shooting upward like a big blaze of fireworks." But not all of its consequences could be seen in the sky that night. Ultimately, the explosion also helped to trigger the Spanish-American War and to bring about a new role for the United States as the dominant power in the Western Hemisphere.

Before the ship blew up, Americans had watched with keen interest while Cuban revolutionaries challenged the rule of colonial Spain over their island, just 90 miles from Florida. The Cubans won the sympathy of many Americans, who read reports of Spanish atrocities and demanded U.S. intervention to aid the rebels in throwing Spain out. Business leaders, with an eye on Cuba's lucrative sugarcane plantations, wanted to protect trade with the island. They pressed President William McKinley to invoke the Monroe Doctrine, which 80 years earlier had warned Europe not to meddle in the New World.

McKinley decided on a show of force to protect U.S. business interests and challenge Spain. On January 24, 1898, he sent the Maine to Havana on a "courtesy and goodwill" visit. But Spain didn't see the mission as one of goodwill.

In a letter published in The New York Times, sailor Charles Denning told of an encounter on the island:

A crowd of us went ashore one day to enjoy ourselves, and when we got into Havana city, a crowd of Spaniards gathered around us and tried to kill us, but we licked a couple of them and fought our way out. I don't want to tell you of what they tried to do to us ...

Despite the tensions, the visit passed uneventfully. The Maine was scheduled to leave Havana February 15, but never made it. That night, as one sailor on board told the Times:

... there came a dull, sullen roar. Would to God that I could blot out the sound and the scene that followed.... Then came a perfect rain of missiles of all descriptions, from huge pieces of cement to blocks of wood, steel railings, fragments of gratings, and all the debris that would he detachable in an explosion. I was struck on the head by a piece of cement and knocked down ...

The disaster dominated the...