The Mystery of the Maine.

When a U.S. ship blew up in Cuba in 1898, its name became a battle cry in a war against Spain. But was Spain really to blame?

The sudden explosion rocked the harbor and lit up the skies. At 9:40 p.m. on February 15, 1898, the battleship U.S.S. Maine blew up in the water off Havana, Cuba, killing 266 American sailors.

The blast that destroyed the Maine produced what one witness called "a great column of fire shooting upward like a big blaze of fireworks." But not all of its consequences could be seen in the sky that night. Ultimately, the explosion also helped to trigger the Spanish-American War and to bring about a new role for the United States as the dominant power in the Western Hemisphere.

Before the ship blew up, Americans had watched with keen interest while Cuban revolutionaries challenged the rule of colonial Spain over their island, just 90 miles from Florida. The Cubans won the sympathy of many Americans, who read reports of Spanish atrocities and demanded U.S. intervention to aid the rebels in throwing Spain out. Business leaders, with an eye on Cuba's lucrative sugarcane plantations, wanted to protect trade with the island. They pressed President William McKinley to invoke the Monroe Doctrine, which 80 years earlier had warned Europe not to meddle in the New World.

McKinley decided on a show of force to protect U.S. business interests and challenge Spain. On January 24, 1898, he sent the Maine to Havana on a "courtesy and goodwill" visit. But Spain didn't see the mission as one of goodwill.

In a letter published in The New York Times, sailor Charles Denning told of an encounter on the island:

A crowd of us went ashore one day to enjoy ourselves, and when we got into Havana city, a crowd of Spaniards gathered around us and tried to kill us, but we licked a couple of them and fought our way out. I don't want to tell you of what they tried to do to us ...

Despite the tensions, the visit passed uneventfully. The Maine was scheduled to leave Havana February 15, but never made it. That night, as one sailor on board told the Times:

... there came a dull, sullen roar. Would to God that I could blot out the sound and the scene that followed.... Then came a perfect rain of missiles of all descriptions, from huge pieces of cement to blocks of wood, steel railings, fragments of gratings, and all the debris that would he detachable in an explosion. I was struck on the head by a piece of cement and knocked down ...

The disaster dominated the front pages of most U.S. newspapers for a week. Many of those papers called for war with Spain. The destruction of the Maine, they argued, was an obvious act of war by an aging European nation trying to hold onto power.

The Spanish denied sabotage. They suggested that the ship's own guns had blown up after a boiler fire. Because of similar events on U.S. ships in the past, U.S. Secretary of the Navy John D. Long said he suspected such an accident. In contrast to other papers' cries for revenge, a Times editorial counseled patience:

There is no evidence to prove or disprove treachery. Naval men tell of many ways in which the disaster could have been caused by accident which could not be guarded against.

But nationalistic feelings ran high. Some in Congress criticized President McKinley for waiting for a special court of inquiry to determine the cause of the blast. Senator George Perkins (R-Calif.) declared:

The chances, it seems to me, are 999 in 1,000, that the calamity did not result from an accident.... That it was due to treachery, I am convinced.

That view seemed to be upheld on March 27, when the court of inquiry reported

that a mine was exploded under the ship on the port side.... The opinion of the court is that the explosion of the mine caused the explosion of two magazines.

Note that the report didn't say Spain was to blame. The public ignored that fine point. Headlines about the report's findings fueled passion for revenge. Angry Americans took up the cry "Remember the Maine!" often adding "To hell with Spain!"

On April 11, McKinley declared:

The only hope of relief and repose from a condition which can no longer he endured is the enforced pacification of Cuba. In the name of humanity, in the name of civilization, in behalf of endangered American interests which give us the right and the duty to speak and to act, the war in Cuba must stop.

McKinley told Spain to leave Cuba or be forced out. Spain wanted peace, but couldn't afford to give in entirely. So began a lopsided war in which the U.S. attacked Spain's colonies not only in Cuba, but around the world. On July 3, American ships destroyed the Spanish fleet at Santiago, Cuba. The fighting ended later that month.

In a treaty signed in December, Spain reluctantly gave up Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea and the Philippines and Guam in the Pacific. The Maine explosion had helped to inspire a war of conquest. But even today, historians aren't sure what really caused the blast.