USS Maine exploded in Havana on the evening of 15 February 1898, killing nearly 270 sailors, about three quarters of her crew. The official American board attributed the loss to an external mine, while the Spanish inquiry and some American engineering opinion favoured an accidental bunker and magazine fire. The bituminous coal substituted for the anthracite coal envisaged in the design could release methane as it heated, and Hyman Rickover's 1974 investigation supported an accidental cause. A deliberate American demolition would also have involved enough people to make concealment extraordinarily difficult. The political lesson is narrower: leaders already considering intervention could exploit an unexplained naval disaster without having caused it.
Chapter · 14:08-18:23
The Maine explosion, competing inquiries, and political use
Competing explanations for Maine's destruction show the difference between an uncertain technical cause, a demolition conspiracy, and political exploitation of a useful crisis.