USS Maine (ACR-1)

USS Maine entering Havana Harbor on 25 January 1898, where the ship would explode three weeks later. On the right is the old Morro Castle fortress.
History
United States
Name:	Maine
Namesake:	State of Maine
Ordered:	3 August 1886
Builder:	New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, New York
Cost:	$4,677,788.75
Laid down:	17 October 1888
Launched:	18 November 1889
Sponsored by:	Alice Tracy Wilmerding
Commissioned:	17 September 1895
Fate:	Sunk by explosion in Havana Harbor, Havana, Cuba, 15 February 1898
Status:	Remains scuttled in the Strait of Florida, 16 March 1912
General characteristics
Type:	Armored cruiser or 2nd-class battleship
Displacement:	6,682 long tons (6,789 t)
Length:	324 ft 4 in (98.9 m) oa
Beam:	57 ft (17.4 m)
Draft:	22 ft 6 in (6.9 m) (max)
Installed power:	8 × boilers 9,293 ihp (6,930 kW)
Propulsion:	2 × vertical triple expansion steam engines 2 × screws
Speed:	16.45 kn (30.47 km/h; 18.93 mph)
Range:	6670km (3600nm) at 10 knots
Complement:	374 officers and men
Armament:	2 × twin 10 in (254 mm)/30 caliber Mark 2 guns 6 × 6 in (152 mm)/30 caliber Mark 3 guns 7 × Driggs-Schroeder 6-pounder (57 mm (2.2 in)) guns 4 × 1-pounder (37 mm (1.5 in)) Hotchkiss guns 4 × Driggs-Schroeder 1-pounder (37 mm (1.5 in)) guns 4 × Gatling guns .45–70 caliber 4 × 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor:	Belt: 12 in (305 mm) Deck: 2–3 in (51–76 mm) Turrets: 8 in (203 mm) Conning tower: 10 in (254 mm) Bulkheads: 6 in (152 mm)

USS Maine (ACR-1) is an American naval ship that sank in Havana Harbor during the Cuban revolt against Spain, an event that became a major political issue in the United States.

Commissioned in 1895, this was the first United States Navy ship to be named after the state of Maine. Originally classified as an armored cruiser, she was built in response to the Brazilian battleship Riachuelo and the increase of naval forces in Latin America. Maine and her near-sister ship Texas reflected the latest European naval developments, with the layout of her main armament resembling that of the British ironclad Inflexible and comparable Italian ships. Her two gun turrets were staggered en échelon, rather than on the centerline, with the fore gun sponsoned out on the starboard side of the ship and the aft gun on the port side, with cutaways in the superstructure to allow both to fire ahead, astern or across her deck. She dispensed with full masts thanks to the increased reliability of steam engines by the time of her construction.

Despite these advances, Maine was out of date by the time she entered service, due to her protracted construction period and changes in the role of ships of her type, naval tactics and technology. It took nine years to complete, and nearly three years for the armor plating alone. The general use of steel in warship construction precluded the use of ramming without danger to the attacking vessel. The potential for blast damage from firing end on or cross-deck discouraged en échelon gun placement. The changing role of the armored cruiser from a small, heavily armored substitute for the battleship to a fast, lightly armored commerce raider also hastened her obsolescence. Despite these disadvantages, Maine was seen as an advance in American warship design.