Remembering the Maine -in Key West

[Claudius]

 

Over the Christmas break the wife wanted to see Key West.  Mallory Square is a popular destination among the tourists and the street performers know this as well.  While they were performing stunts of amazing showmanship I wander over to a public display on the military role of Key West through the decades.  I almost didn't see this memorial in the corner.

The USS Maine's Forward Fire Control Turret is affixed to a 4ft high limestone plinth.  A brass plack mounted below with the ship's name and other details.  The turret isn't very large, but it must be incredibly heavy.  I placed my hand in a couple of the side slots and I estimated that the metal was at least 7 inches thick.  The top is probably much more.  I can just imagine a sailor inside.  The space would be just big enough for his head and maybe shoulders along with his elementary communication equipment for reporting his sightings to the guns.  They painted it white to keep the rust off but otherwise looks unmarred.

As you may know, the USS Maine blew up on Feb 15, 1898 in Havana Harbor.  The US considered this to be the last straw and the Spanish-American War had begun.  The Maine left for Havana Harbor from Key West, so I guess they thought it was good place to send back the dead and where they would conducted their first inquiry into the explosion.  In 1910 Congress authorized the removing of the Maine.   Pieces retrieved from the ship were made into memorials all over the US and one in Cuba.  A list of these memorials can be found on the internet, but this turret piece as a memorial didn't make the list.

I recall learning about the Maine in grade school.  In a book, a lithograph drawing at the moment of the explosion.  The ship and its significance were so distant and remote, they might as well have occurred during the ancient peloponnesian war.  Decades later, to finally have an actual piece to touch was really neat.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Claudius

[paul wood]

Most interesting  do you have a better image of the inscription on the memorial or do you have the details?

Thanks

Paul

[Claudius]

The best I can do...

 

hmmm, my copy is easier to read so here it is.

BATTLESHIP USS MAINE

GUN-SIGHT

Salvaged from the Maine destroyed

by an explosion in Havana Harbor, Cuba

On February 15, 1898

At 9:40pm

"REMEMBER THE MAINE"

Edited January 6, 2016 by Claudius

[paul wood]

Thanks so much.

Paul

 

[Hugh]

I hope you also had a chance to visit the cemetery where the dead are buried and see the memorial there.  

H

[Ulsterman]

cool. I have seen enormous shells from the Maine in a local town hall, tucked away in a quiet corner gathering dust. 

[Claudius]

On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 20:14, Hugh said:

I hope you also had a chance to visit the cemetery where the dead are buried and see the memorial there.  

H

I did not visit the cemetery.  I passed the island's one (civilian) cemetery, but I don't know the Maine dead are buried there or somewhere else.

2 hours ago, Ulsterman said:

cool. I have seen enormous shells from the Maine in a local town hall, tucked away in a quiet corner gathering dust. 

That would be cool to see.

[Hugh]

The Maine dead are buried in the civilian cemetery, at the foot of Windsor Lane just past the Writers Compound.  

[Claudius]

On ‎1‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 11:34, Hugh said:

The Maine dead are buried in the civilian cemetery, at the foot of Windsor Lane just past the Writers Compound.  

Thanks.