Estimado Luis: Hoy tengo un poquito de tiempo y entro en este apasionante tema de la Guerra Hispano-Americana. Dejeme decirle que sus interrogantes se las traen, son estupendos, no soy un experto en la materia, por lo que en vez de contestar nada, lo que vamos a hacer es tratar de encontrar juntos una explicacion a todos esos apasionantes misterios, y que mejor que comenzar por lo que dicen que fue el "detonante" de la Guerra, el hundimiento de Acorazado Maine en la bahia de La Habana.

Nota: Amigo Luis, muchos de mis fuentes estan en ingles. Considera adecuado que ponga algo en ese idioma, es que mis fuentes estan fundamentalmente en ese idioma, bien volvamos a ese magnifico buque que se llamo Maine.

Otra nota: Los acorazados americanos (battleships) fueron nombrados por Estados de la Union (la unica excepcion fue el acorazado pre-Dreadnought Kearsarge BB-5)


El acorazado de Segunda Clase Maine, fue construido en 1889, o sea solo tenia a0 años cuando fue enviado a la Habana, donde exploto en feb del 1898, innumerables teorias y la culpa de lado a lado como pelota de tennis, esto y seguro que en los textos españoles aparece como un autoatentado, para desencadenar la guerra, esa fue una de laas teorias mas fuertes hasta que en el 1998 la National Geografic hizo un estudio computarizado sobre las fotos de los restos del Maine cuando fueros extraidos de la Bahia de La Habana para ser hundido en alta mar y ellos llegaron a la conclusion de que si, la explosion provenia de dentro del barco, pero habia tenido su origen en un pañol vecino a un cuarto de calderas, pero lo que consideran que fue un malfuncionamiento (muy oportuno por cierto), pero nada criminal.




Sinking

The Maine spent her active career operating along the East Coast of the United States and the Caribbean. In January 1898, the Maine was sent from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba, to protect U.S. interests during a time of local insurrection and civil disturbances. Three weeks later, at 9:40 on the evening of February 15, a terrible explosion on board the Maine shattered the stillness in Havana Harbor. Later investigations revealed that more than five tons of powder charges for the vessel's six and ten-inch guns ignited, virtually obliterating the forward third of the ship. The remaining wreckage rapidly settled to the bottom of the harbor. Most of the Maine’s crew were sleeping or resting in the enlisted quarters in the forward part of the ship when the explosion occurred. Two hundred and sixty-six men lost their lives as a result of the explosion or shortly thereafter, and eight more died later from injuries. Captain Charles Sigsbee and most of the officers survived because their quarters were in the aft portion of the ship. On March 28, the US Naval Court of Inquiry in Key West declared that a naval mine caused the explosion.
The explosion was a precipitating cause of the Spanish-American War that began in April 1898 and which used the rallying cry, "Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain." At the time, it was used as pretext for war by those who were already inclined to go to war with Spain.

On August 5, 1910, Congress authorized the raising of the Maine to remove it as a navigation hazard in Havana Harbor. On February 2, 1912, she was refloated under supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers and towed out to sea where she was sunk in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico on March 16, 1912, with appropriate military honors and ceremonies.
In 1914, one of the Maine’s six anchors was taken from the Washington Navy Yard to City Park in Reading, Pa., and dedicated during a ceremony presided over by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was then assistant Secretary of the Navy.
In 1976, Admiral Hyman Rickover of the United States Navy published an investigation that concluded that the tragedy was self-inflicted, probably the result of a coal bunker fire. Some historians have disputed these findings, maintaining that failure to detect spontaneous combustion in the coal bunker was highly unlikely. Other people maintain that the Maine was the victim of sabotage or sacrificed to rally public opinion against Spain.

In an expedition in 1998, the National Geographic Society explored the wreck and commissioned a structural analysis by Advanced Marine Enterprises. They determined that the explosion could have been internal; the theory they embraced was that an undetected smoldering coal fire had ignited volatile coal dust in the air, creating a small explosion that touched off the nearby powder magazine. However, AME also said damage to the bottom plating and seafloor could be consistent with an external mine, thus hedging the findings.
In February of 1898, the recovered bodies of sailors who died on the American Battleship Maine were interred in the Colon Cemetery, Havana. In December of 1899 the bodies were disinterred and brought back to the United States for burial at Arlington National Cemetery[1] where there is a memorial to those who died and which includes the ship's main mast. There is also a memorial, consisting of the shield and scrollwork from the bow of the ship, in Bangor, Maine. The fore mast of the Maine is located at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. There is a traditional in-joke among midshipmen at the Academy that the Maine, with its main mast in Eastern Virginia and its fore mast in Central Maryland, is the longest ship in the Navy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)

__________________
El socialismo, es la Filosofía del Fracaso
El credo a la ignorancia,
Y la predica a la envidia.
Su virtud inherente, es la distribución
Igualitaria de la miseria.

Winston Churchill

And by the way, I don't believe in a Man Made Global Warming.