The battleship USS MAINE was sunk by an explosion in the harbor of Havana, Cuba on the night of February 15, 1898, three weeks after her arrival for a friendly visit. Afterwards, two official US Navy boards of inquiry, the Sampson Board of 1898 and the Vreeland Board of 1911, investigated the incident. Both reached the same basic conclusion, that the ship had been destroyed by a magazine explosion which was triggered by an external blast.
Spanish Responsibility ?
The Sampson Board's finding was interpreted by President McKinley and other American leaders as indicating that the ship had been destroyed by a mine, for which the Spanish authorities were responsible, and most Americans agreed with this in 1898. At that time, it was widely believed that the ship had been destroyed by a Spanish naval mine planted in a harbor defended by the Spanish authorities. This interpretation of the Sampson Board's conclusions did not, however, mean that the Spanish had intentionally destroyed the ship. Because Havana harbor was under Spanish jurisdiction, the Spanish authorities were responsible under international law for the safety of all friendly ships in the harbor. Thus, even if the Spanish had not destroyed the MAINE, they were regarded as responsible under commonly accepted practice for having failed to protect her in their harbor. However, since Cuba was unstable at that time, with an insurrection against Spanish colonial rule in progress, it seems unfair to have labeled the Spanish as guilty for failing to protect the ship in such circumstances.
The Spanish could have had several motives to attack the MAINE. They may have felt threatened by the presence of such a large foreign warship in Havana harbor. Some observers believed that the explosion occurred on a night when, for the first time in three weeks, the MAINE had swung at her mooring so that her main battery guns were pointed at Morro Castle and the other Spanish fortresses and coastal batteries which defended the city. In response to this perceived threat, the Spanish could have triggered a mine. Another motive could have been that the Spanish wanted revenge against the United States, which they blamed for having supported the Cuban rebels for twenty-five years. In addition, the Spanish could have believed that the MAINE was imposing on their sovereignty in Cuba, having been sent to Havana to place pressure on their policies there.
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