to commission September 17, 1895. She was built after the
designs of chief constructor T. D. Wilson. The delay in going into
commission is said to have been due to the difficulty in getting
satisfactory armour. The side armour was twelve inches thick; the two
steel barbettes were each of the same thickness, and the walls of the
turrets were eight inches thick.

In her main battery were four 10-inch and six 6-inch breech-loading
rifles; in the secondary battery seven 6-pounder and eight 1-pounder
rapid-fire guns and four Gatlings. Her crew was made up of 370 men, and
the following officers: Capt. C. D. Sigsbee, Lieut.-Commander R.
Wainwright, Lieut. G. F. W. Holman, Lieut. J. Hood, Lieut. C. W. Jungen,
Lieut. G. P. Blow, Lieut. F. W. Jenkins, Lieut. J. J. Blandin, Surgeon S.
G. Heneberger, Paymaster C. M. Ray, Chief Engineer C. P. Howell, Chaplain
J. P. Chidwick, Passed Assistant Engineer F. C. Bowers, Lieutenant of
Marines A. Catlin, Assistant Engineer J. R. Morris, Assistant Engineer
Darwin R. Merritt, Naval Cadet J. H. Holden, Naval Cadet W. T. Cluverius,
Naval Cadet R. Bronson, Naval Cadet P. Washington, Naval Cadet A.
Crenshaw, Naval Cadet J. T. Boyd, Boatswain F. E. Larkin, Gunner J. Hill,
Carpenter J. Helm, Paymaster's Clerk B. McCarthy.

Why had the _Maine_ been sent to this port?

The official reason given by the Secretary of the Navy when he notified
the Spanish minister, Senor Dupuy de Lome, was that the visit of the
_Maine_ was simply intended as a friendly call, according to the
recognised custom of nations.

The United States minister at Madrid, General Woodford, also announced the
same in substance to the Spanish Minister of State.

It having been repeatedly declared by the government at Madrid that a
state of war did not exist in Cuba, and that the relations between the
United States and Spain were of the most friendly character, nothing less
could be done than accept the official construction put upon the visit.

The Spanish public, however, were not disposed to view the matter in the
same light, as may be seen by the following extracts from newspapers:

"If the government of the United States sends one war-ship to Cuba, a
thing it is no longer likely to do, Spain would act with energy and
without vacillation."--_El Heraldo, January 16th._

"We see now the eagerness of the Yankees to seize Cuba."--_The Imparcial,
January 23d._

The same paper, on the 27th, declared:

"If Havana people, exasper