Fact check
Is it true: USS Maine 1898: Spanish mine vs internal coal-bunker explosion?
There's no solid evidence for it.
The claim that Spain deliberately mined the USS Maine is unsubstantiated. It bundles two questions. Whether a mine was involved at all is unresolved: the Sampson Court (1898) and Vreeland Board (1911) said an external mine, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover's 1976 book judged a coal-bunker fire adjacent to a magazine most probable, and a 1998 computer analysis for National Geographic was inconclusive, although it found signs of an external mine. Whether Spain placed a mine has no evidence behind it: no mine or mine component was ever recovered, the Sampson Court itself said it could not fix responsibility on anyone, and no inquiry has tied a mine to Spain.
The claim
Spain, or Spanish agents in Cuba, deliberately sank the USS Maine in Havana Harbor on 15 February 1898 by detonating a mine under her hull, killing 266 US sailors. This is the attribution behind the 1898 war cry "Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain."
Key evidence
Sampson Court 1898: external mine finding
Rickover's 1976 book: coal-bunker fire most probable
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