USS Maine 1898 1/250

Ahoy
             Here is another paper model I built a couple years back, again this is made rom paper and card stock................. This vessel is long forgotten by America as the world turns the Battleship USS MAINE  brought us into the Spanish and American war in 1898 although a splendid little war it was only under 3 months. America has shown the world it powers a nation to recon with. On the month of May 10th 1898 the battleship Maine passed through the harbor of Havana Cuba and passed the old fortress morro castle and weighed anchor. Tensions between Spain and the States were at each others throats the battleship main commanded by captain Sigsbee was sent out to Cuba to assure peace on the 14th of May 1898 at 9:40 Pm taps aboard was piped down for the crew to retire. Just at the time the crew bedded down a mighty explosion followed killing over 268 crew members, the ship sank at once into 30 feet of water Damage caused the a third of the bow section into scrap twisted the keel into a inverted V.......... the ship was totally destroyed beyond repair it remain America was angered by this event and it brought us into the Spanish American war. in 1910 the Cuban government hired the army corps engineers to have the hip raised and taken out to see they said it was a eyesore and it caused navigation problems inside the harbor........ On September of 1910 the battleship was raised by using a coffer dam method by pumping out all the water around the ship and boarding up a dam to keep the water from coming in the coffer........ Once raised the wreck was exposed the blown off bow section was removed and the incerted a plug 27 more bodies were exsumed from the wreck and wee sent back to the states for burial ......After the ship was repaired to be refloated it was towed out to see 4 miles into international waters away from Cuba the sea cocks were opened up by the army of engineers and she was sunk and given a ceremony an expedition was formed in 2007  in search of the wreck she was located under 1700 feet of water only her stern section was left.  I built this from model plans I had in the scale of 1/250 giving a model length of 13 inchs.          Here is Captain Sigsbee battleship Maine.

                                                                                  Franklyn










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You sure do some outstanding work and good history on this ship. Thanks for shareing. John

I like this one Franklyn. Nice work.

Those gun positions must have made forward shooting impossible. Guess that's a relic of the old sail ships.

That is so cool !!!
Beautiful old ship ! Thanks for sharing the model and the history. :drunken:

Stunning ship! Thanx for the history on this once proud ship. Every li'l detail keeps me lookin' for more. 8)

Nice read and excellent work. Thanks for sharing this one.

That was a very interesting background story to the USS Maine. Beautiful model, great work Franklyn.

Ahoy Fellas
A Hardy Thank You fellas for your replies I am honored to be here to show you guys my life work...... I just hope I am not hoarding the forum, thanks fellas I have another in the classic of plastics coming up.

Franklyn :cheers:

Franklyn,you aren't hoarding the forum! This is what modeling is all about! Sharing your passion with other like minded individuals! You fit in great and as you can tell from the replies that everyone loves your work! Keep showing them. They are amazing!