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Was it a coal dust explosion, or was it a mine? This report-- from a study commissioned by National Geographic magazine-- provides compelling evidence.
After a period of uneasy peace, Cuban rebels in 1895 renewed their struggle against the Spanish rulers of the island. To quell this latest insurrection, Spain sent General Valeriano Weyler, who forced thousands of Cubans into concentration camps. Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal thundered with demands for U.S. intervention to aid the Cuban guerrillas. The sensationalist newspapers dubbed Weyler "the Butcher" and published stories-some true, some not-about his atrocities against Cubans. Spain, reacting to U.S. loathing of Weyler, removed him, temporarily easing tension between the two nations. But in January 1898, anti-American rioting broke out, and U.S. Consul Fitzhugh Lee (nephew of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and himself a Major General in the Confederate Army) urged official Washington to protect the lives of U.S. citizens on the volatile island. President William McKinley ordered the Maine to Cuba.
On 25 January 1898, the battleship steamed into Havana Harbor. McKinley, trying to still the war drums, wanted the Maine to show the flag, prove that U.S. warships had the right to enter Havana, and then get out. On 15 February the Maine was to head for New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras. By then, McKinley hoped, anti-Spain fervor should have died down.
But at 2140 on the night of 15 February, a massive explosion tore through the ship, killing 250 men and two officers. (Mortal injuries raised the final toll to 266.)
A Court of Inquiry questioned survivors-including commanding officer Captain Charles D. Sigsbee-and interpreted the reports of divers. The theory that a mine had destroyed the ship stemmed primarily from eyewitness testimony. The report of diver W. H. F. Schluter was particularly significant. He said he could see green paint on a bottom plate that was "all torn ragged and it looked to be inward." Bottom plates on the outside were painted with antifouling green paint. So this produced the image of a plate being blasted from the outside and turned inward.
"You are sure they were not bent out?" the court asked Schluter.
"Yes, sir; I am sure," he replied.
"And...