page_title: USS Maine Mast Memorial
section_title: Repatriating the bodies
hierarchical_section_title: USS Maine Mast Memorial / 1912 reburials at Arlington National Cemetery / Repatriating the bodies
caption_attribution_description: English: USS North Carolina (ACR-12) - Official US Navy photo taken from NavSource (www.navsource.org).
context_page_description: The USS Maine Mast Memorial is a memorial honoring those who died aboard the USS Maine on February 15, 1898, after a mysterious explosion destroyed the ship while at anchor in Havana Harbor. It is located in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. The memorial consists of the main mast of the battleship set atop a circular concrete burial receiving vault designed to resemble a battleship turret. The memorial has occasionally been used to hold the remains of important individuals, such as Lord Lothian and Ignacy Jan Paderewski.
context_section_description: Preparations for receiving the bodies of the USS Maine began in June 1911. Captain James D. Tilford and undertaker Oliver B. Jenkins of Washington, D.C., took charge of the remains in Havana. They were assisted by the Maine's former chaplain, Father John Chidwick. Their plan was to place each set of remains in a coffin, which would be kept under guard at the La Cabaña fortress. The assumption of many involved in the operation was that the USS Leonidas would take the remains to the United States (just as it did other relics from the ship). Tilford and Jenkins ordered 25 coffins from the United States, believing that most of the 75 missing bodies had been blown far out into the harbor by the explosion and would not be recovered. (Their assumption was based, in part, on Father Chidwick's testimony that he saw bodies blown as high as 60 feet (18 m) into the air by the explosion.)
  President Gomez ordered all flags in the city to fly at half-mast and the minute guns at La Cabaña and Morro Castle to fire every 30 seconds every day that dead were brought to the surface.
  In August 1911, President Taft learned that the collier Leonidas might be carrying the Maine dead home to the United States. Believing that this would dishonor the dead, Taft ordered the U.S. Navy to send a battleship to Cuba provide transport instead. Taft also directed the Corps of Engineers to assign an officer to oversee the bodies while in transport. Major George LeRoy Irwin was assigned this duty on August 28.
  On January 7, 1912, the War Department announced tentative plans for bringing the Maine's dead to the United States. It said that the battleships USS North Carolina and the USS Washington (ACR-11) would bear the bodies, escorted by the cruisers USS Birmingham (CL-2) and USS Salem (CL-3) and the salvage ship USS Chesapeake (ID-3395). When it became clear by mid February that no further human remains were likely to be found, the War Department scaled back its plans so that the bodies would be borne by the USS North Carolina, with an escort by the USS Birmingham. The North Carolina would bear the dead to Hampton Roads, at which point the bodies would be placed aboard the Birmingham and taken to the Washington Navy Yard.
  President Gomez personally oversaw the honors given to the dead of the Maine before the bodies left Havana. There were 34 coffins, all but one of which contained the remains of two individuals. The coffins were moved from La Cabaña to city hall (the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales) the evening of March 14, where the bodies lay in state overnight. Public viewing of the remains began at 2:00 P.M. local time on March 15, and ended at 10:00 A.M. on March 16. More than 30,000 paid their respects to the dead. Throughout the day on March 16, cannon at La Cabaña and Morro Castle fired every half hour.
  After the public viewing ended, Cuban Army artillerymen loaded the coffins aboard caissons. Commander Charles F. Hughes of the Birmingham led a contingent of 300 Marines and bluejackets and the North Carolina's band escorted the dead to Machina Wharf. Accompanying the funeral cortege were Brigadier General William Herbert Bixby, Army Corps Chief of Engineers; Julio de Cárdenas, Mayor of Havana; Alfredo Zayas y Alfonso, Vice President of Cuba; and members of the Cuban Cabinet. Six U.S. Navy sailors loaded the first coffins a funeral barge, while Cuban military personnel moved the remainder. The barges took the remains to the North Carolina. As the North Carolina passed out of the harbor, soldiers of the Cuban Army lined the walls of La Cabaña and Morro Castle and stood at attention while a military band played a funeral dirge. Hand-painted porcelain funeral wreaths, a gift of the Cuban government, were placed on the coffins.
caption: The USS North Carolina, which carried the dead of the Maine home to the United States in 1899
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