Theories on Why USS Maine Exploded

On February 15, 1898, the American battleship Maine exploded while sitting in the
Havana harbor, killing two officers and 250 enlisted men. Fourteen of the injured later
died, bringing the death toll to 266. A naval board of inquiry concluded that the blast
was caused by a mine placed outside the ship. Release of the board's report led many to
accuse Spain of sabotage, helping to build public support for war. Subsequent studies,
including one published in 1976 and later reissued in 1995, determined that the ship was
destroyed from the inside, when burning coal in a bunker triggered an explosion in an
adjacent space that contained ammunition.
1898 Investigation. The McKinley Administration created a naval board of
inquiry to study the cause of the blast. On March 21 the board concluded unanimously
that the destruction of the ship was caused “only by the explosion of a mine situated
under the bottom of the ship at about frame 18, and somewhat on the port side of the
ship.” The board said it had been “unable to obtain evidence fixing the responsibility for
the destruction of the MAINE upon any person or persons.” As to the possibility that the
ship had been destroyed from an internal explosion in a magazine containing
ammunition, the board said “there had never been a case of spontaneous combustion of
coal on board the MAINE.”1
The board did not acknowledge that other U.S. ships had
experienced spontaneous combustion of coal in bunkers.