The USS Maine

• Ordered to Havana on 24 January 1898 to protect American citizens, properties, and investments, and to "evacuate US citizens if required"
• The U.S. had consulted with Spain before sending the Maine to Havana Harbor, a Spanish harbor
• On February 15, 1898, an explosion occurred on board the ship, destroying the whole vessel and killing 266 people, about two-thirds of the crew
• Most of the crew were asleep when the explosion occurred, therefore specific details on the explosion could not be provided
• Captain Sigsbee sent a telegraph to the Secretary of the Navy asking that the public not be informed until there was more information on the cause of the explosion
• An official naval court of inquiry, the Sampson Board's Court of Inquiry, arrived at Havana Harbor on 21 February to investigate the cause of explosion

• The board concluded that Maine was destroyed by "the explosion of a submarine mine, which caused the partial explosion of two or more of her forward magazines"
• It was obvious, that by the opinion of the board, the Spanish were to be blamed
• Other past evidences which supported the assumption:

1. Spain had been cruel throughout history, for example in 1873 an American ship was captured by a Spanish gunboat whose crew executed around forty American men
2. Never before had a ship been destroyed because of the explosion of its own magazine
3. A first-time occurrence in a Spanish harbor was more than a coincidence 

• The Spanish inquiry said that it was the American's "faulty discipline and incorrect methods" that caused the explosion

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