Question: who sank the battleship uss maine in 1898 and why
Answer: The cause of Maine 's sinking remains a subject of speculation . In 1898 , an investigation of the explosion was carried out by a naval board appointed under the McKinley Administration . The consensus of the board was that Maine was destroyed by an external explosion from a mine . However , the validity of this investigation has been challenged . George W. Melville , a chief engineer in the Navy , proposed that a more likely cause for the sinking was from a magazine explosion within the vessel . The Navy 's leading ordnance expert , Philip R. Alger , took this theory further by suggesting that the magazines were ignited by a spontaneous fire in a coal bunker . The coal used in Maine was bituminous coal , which is known for releasing firedamp , a gas that is prone to spontaneous explosions . There is stronger evidence that the explosion of Maine was caused by an internal coal fire which ignited the magazines . This was a likely cause of the explosion , rather than the initial hypothesis of a mine . The ship lay at the bottom of the harbor until 1911 . A cofferdam was then built around the wreck . The hull was patched up until the ship was afloat , then towed to sea and sunk . The Maine now lies on the sea - bed 3,600 feet ( 1,100 m ) below the surface .