TR Got Fame He Wanted After USS Maine Explosion

The USB Maine exploded in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898. Interest in this ship has endured for over 100 years and has, at times, provoked controversy. Apparently, some people still believe that a mine, surreptitiously planted by
Spanish authorities, Cuban rebels, or other saboteurs, caused the initial detonation.2 A literary cottage industry of publications advocating different theories have muddied the waters, most notably Remembering the Maine published in 1995 and an article by National Geographic three years later. Under the auspices of Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, a team of seasoned researchers in the mid-1970s proved in How the Battleship Maine was Destroyed that the culprit was the superheating of a magazine by spontaneous combustion from an adjoining coal bunker. Rickover’s investigation, generally viewed as the benchmark on this topic, has sparked additional exploration and insights. In particular, a review of the
information in this book raises questions about the beliefs of government officials such as Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, who, as an ardent student of naval affairs, most likely believed that it was indeed a bunker fire that
caused the ignition. Yet, he vigorously advocated sabotage as an explanation for the explosion, seeing the disaster as a pretext for war with Spain.