Maine (armoured)

History

The Congrès of the United States authorized its construction the August 3rd 1886 and the building site was launched the October 17th 1888 in the New York Naval Shipyard (NYNSY), with New York. Launching was carried out the November 18th of the following year, the baptism being realized by Miss Alice Tracey, grand-daughter of the secretary to the navy Benjamin F. Tracy. Captain A.S. Crowninshield took the command of the ship to his startup, the September 17th 1895.

He then began his operational career by patrolling the east coast of the USA and the the Caribbean. Mid-January 1898, it was sent to Havana, to protect there the American interests at the time of disorders insurectionnels which prevailed on the island of Cuba. The February 15th, towards 21:40, a terrible explosion occurred aboard ship which landed quickly on the bottom of the port; 260 men were killed on the blow and 6 wounded succumbed thereafter. The Sigsbee captain and the majority of the officers survived because their districts were on the back of the building, whereas those of the crew were on the front one. The investigation of the US Navy concludes the March 28th with an explosion from the ammunition of 250 and 150 mm, caused by a naval Mine. The tragedy caused to precipitate the war against Spain which started in April, the rallying cry remember the Maine (remember Maine) being used by the faction warmonger of the American opinion.

The August 5th 1910, the reinflation of Maine was authorized by the congress because it presented dangers to the harbor navigation of Havana. The February 2nd 1912, Maine floated again after the work of the Corps of the engineers of the army of the United States and it was cast in deep water of the Gulf of Mexico, the March 16th according to.

In 1976, the Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, US Navy, published an investigation concluding with an accident due to a spontaneous combustion from the coal, which was disputed by historians doubting that this one was not detected and preferring to accept in a sabotage, or an operation intended to rejoin the public opinion. A forwarding of diving on the wreck by the National Geographic Society, followed the data-processing modelings carried out by the company Advanced Marine Enterprises , accredited the thesis of an internal explosion, a fire brooding in coal stocks having caused an explosion of the ammunition by Conduction. However, the investigation concludes that the damage of the lower hull more probably seems to be explained by the action of an external mine.

A monument with the victims of the accident rises with the national Cimetière of Arlington.

Complementary readings

Chapter 3, " U.S.S. Maine" , pages 80 to 114, John Harris, Without has Trace: With Fresh Investigation off Eight Lost Ships and Their Fates, Atheneum, 1981, hardcover, 244 pages, ISBN 0689111207

External bonds

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
http://www.mdw.army.mil/fs-m04.htm

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