Remember the Maine

In February 1898, relations between the United States and Spain had deteriorated over Cuba. Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish minister to the United States, had written a stinging letter about President William McKinley to a personal friend. The letter was stolen and soon found itself on the desk of William Randolph Hearst, who promptly published it. After public outcry, de Lôme was recalled to Spain and the Spanish government apologized. The peace was short-lived, however. On the evening of February 15, 1898, a sudden and shocking explosion tore a hole in the hull of the American battleship Maine which had been on patrol in Havana harbor. The immediate assumption was that the sinking of the Maine and the deaths of 260 sailors was the result of Spanish treachery. Although no conclusive results have ever been proven, many Americans had already made up their minds, demanding an immediate declaration of war. In late 1899 the remains of 163 of the sailors and Marines who died in the explosion were removed from the semi-submerged ship. They were laid to rest with a solemn ceremony in their own section of Arlington National Cemetery. An anchor from a similar battleship and two flanking 18th century Spanish mortars brought back from Manila by Admiral Dewey were installed as the first memorial to the victims of the USS Maine. The ruins of the battleship remained in Havana harbor for another decade. Finally, bowing to both American and Cuban public pressure, the Navy built cofferdams around the ship to re-examine the ruins and to remove the remaining human remains before towing the ship out to sea and scuttling it in 1912. During this time, the ship's main mast was removed and brought to Arlington to form part of a larger memorial to be located adjacent to the interred sailors and marines.