Key West "Maine" Memorial |
One notable place is the military section of the Key West
cemetery. It’s easy to get to, a
moderate walk from most parts of the western, tourist side of the island. Servicemen from many wars rest there, and not
all American, but the prominent memorial is to the 19 sailors buried there after the explosion of the American Navy cruiser
Maine in Havana harbor (most of the Maine dead were buried at Arlington National Cemetery).
The Maine was one
of the very first American ironclad battleships, still featuring masts in case the
steam engines failed. Because of the nine
years between design and completion, and the rapid advance of naval technology,
Maine was obsolete when it entered
service in 1895. In January of 1898, it steamed
from Key West to Havana to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban uprising
against Spanish rule. Just three weeks
later, on February 15, an explosion sunk the ship in Havana
harbor. Over 266 American servicemen men
died, while 89 survived. In March, the
U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry, sitting in Key West, declared that a naval mine had
caused the blast. This conclusion
has been challenged, and it seems from my reading that most knowledgeable observers
today think that a spontaneous internal coal fire ignited the magazines (the Navy
brain trust had the Maine using, for
ships, a non-standard type of coal, which burned hotter but was prone to producing
combustible gases).
At the time, the
sinking of Maine became a rallying
cry ("Remember the Maine! To hell
with Spain!") of those who wanted the US to declare war on Spain. The warmongers soon got their wish, and after
a short war the US emerged victorious and the new ruler of Puerto Rico and the Philippines
(and some other places like Wake Island and Guam). The Spanish-American War at the time was viewed
as a great American victory, but actually it is one of the great American
misadventures.
Maine sat on the harbor
floor until 1911, when the US built a temporary dam around it and patched up
the hull. What was left of the ship was then floated, towed
out to sea, and re-sunk some miles off the Cuban coast. It was a sad ending to a misbegotten ship that was
poorly-designed and poorly operated in its power plant, leading to the deaths
of nearly 300 young American men in the bloom of youth. To compound the tragedy, Maine’s destruction was used to start a war absurdly costly
in blood and treasure, and whose sequelae burden the United States to this very
day.
A memorial to those who died in the Spanish-American War, in Ottawa, a town in north-central Illinois. The second body of text begins with "USS Maine seaman Carlton H Jencks." |
The filaments of war reach far and wide.
R Balsamo