The destruction of U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor may not have caused the Spanish-American War, but it was certainly a factor in its onset. Maine was one of the newest American battleships. Authorized in 1886 and commissioned in 1895, it was 310 feet Long, 57 feet wide at its largest point, displaced 6,682 tons, and could steam at 17 knots. It carried four 10-inch and six 6-inch guns as its main battery, seven 6-pounders as its secondary battery, and four torpedo tubes, two on each side—a formidable armament in that day. Its crew numbered 354 officers and men.1
Maine was the symbol of the U.S. Navy’s resurgence as a naval power. It was the first armored battleship built entirely of domestically produced materials, and in an American shipyard. Its destruction and the loss of 266 officers and crew was a tragedy that jolted the nation and struck at the heart of the U.S. Navy, which was then a small and close-knit service.
While the destruction of Maine probably drew America into war, its presence in Havana harbor was in the interest of peace. The spiraling violence of the Cuban revolution with its attendant destructive effects on its people and economy attracted the attention of many in America. The unwillingness or inability of the government of Spain to find a formula to satisfy Cuban demands for independence--or at least greater political autonomy--along with continued pressure from some segments of the American press (often called the “yellow” press) and members in Congress, all combined to put increasing pressure on President William McKinley’s administration to intervene in Cuba.
