Pouring on the Coal; The Second USS Maine

gouache, 10 1/2" x 15"

$5,500

This painting depicts the American battleship U.S.S. Maine (BB-10) steaming at speed on maneuvers with other Navy ships in the summer of 1907. The Maine was the first of three ships in the Maine-class, authorized less than three months after the destruction of the first Maine in Hanava Harbor in February,1898. The Maine and her sister ships Ohio and Missouri were stretched versions of their predecessors of the Illinois-class, weighing in at a hefty 12,370 tons and using the extra length provided for extra boilers and secondary gun batteries. The main battery guns were of 12 inch diameter; though smaller than the much-used 14 inch gun, these 12 inchers were more powerful because of a more modern design and the use of smokeless powder. The Maine (and her sisters) were authorized in May of 1898. Maine's keel was laid in February of 1899; she was launched in July of 1901 and finally commissioned in December of 1902. The Maine was easily distinguished from the Missouri and Ohio by the somewhat larger diameter of her three smokestacks. She was fitted with 24 Niclausse boilers and was notorious as one of the Navy's most greedy coalburners, frequently coming extremely close to exhausting her fuel supply on long voyages. The Maine participated in the Great White Fleet cruise around the world, returning to America in February,1909. Decommissioned by the Navy, she had her scrollwork removed, lattice masts installed, and her buff white paint scheme replaced by a much drabber coat of battleship grey. Recommissioned in 1911 there was little for the ship to do During W.W.I the Maine and her sister ships were stripped of most of their armament. ln 1917, the Maine was a testbed for a gyro-stabilizing device developed by the noted inventor Elmer Sperry. Tested further in other ships, this device was never adopted by the Navy. ln 1920 the ship was again decommissioned. ln 1921 Maine and her sisters, by now long obsolete, came under the axe of the Washington Treaty. She was demilitarized of any further equipment and in accordance with Treaty provisions placed on sale. Ln January of 1922 she was declared "incapable of further warlike service" and sold for scrap.