On this date in 1898, at 9:40PM, the battleship USS Maine blew up in Havana harbor. While the actual source of the explosion is unknown, it was the detonation of her forward magazines that destroyed the ship and killed two hundred and sixty-six of her crew.
Being in the harbor of a foreign empire with whom relations were, at best, strained when the sinking occurred, the Maine incident was quickly seized upon as a casus belli and America soon had her splendid little war, going almost overnight from a country that had only recently pacified her own hinterlands to a globe-spanning colonial empire with possessions stretching from Puerto Rico to the Philippines.
There have been four major investigations, if you include the most recent by National Geographic. The two favorite culprits for the initial detonation are spontaneous coal bunker fire and external mine.
ReplyDelete"Died of a theory."
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, my coal bunker never takes fire spontaneously, but apparently every other one ever stocked did. It's probably the reason Titanic did not slow down.
Regardless of ignition (which I personally suspect to be journalistic), it's careless powder storage that lit up the sky. The passage doors to the barbette must be closed. And from Hood to Mary Rose Oakar, the battleship set just never learned.
No blood for coal!
ReplyDeletewv: hyahy
Yeah, it's kinda like that.
Wonder how that whole colonial empire thingee is turning out for America.
ReplyDelete-brusher
I think we generally decided it sucked and gave most of it back.
ReplyDeleteIt's more fun to sell people Coca-Cola than it is to set up colonial governments.
Oh really, just which "colonies" did Spain get back from us?
ReplyDeleteYou know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteI never heard anybody say,
ReplyDeleteUnderneath the starry flag
Civilize 'em with Coca-Cola.
Have you heard this one: Funston, having captured Aguinaldo, points to a hoop-sight and says "Your problem is that your men don't know what this is for.
Aguinaldo: "Well, what is it for?" Those were the days.
Say brusher, seems like your lot are one with Nineveh and Tyre. Bet it stings to watch big dumb Americans go nation-building and actually, you know, build nations.
ReplyDeleteKnow our secret? We don't enjoy it.
wv: essen. I was there once.
"Brusher"...?
ReplyDeleteOh, heh.
Thank you Santa. I promise I'll be good this year...