Battleship Maine Monument "Maine". The memorial is topped by a bronze light standard with an eagle at its crown. The plinth has a bronze plaque bearing the following inscription: To the memory of the soldiers and sailor of the Spanish–American War 1989. Shield and scrolls recovered from wreckage of USS Maine blown up Havana Harbor, Cuba February 15, A.D. 1898. Erected by the city of Bangor, A.D. 1922 The USS "Maine" was an armored cruiser of the United States Navy, and was the first US Navy vessel named after the state of Maine. She was sent in January 1898 to Havana, Cuba as
Protected cruiser Argentina, Austria and the United States. The French Navy adopted the protected cruiser wholeheartedly in the 1880s. The Jeune École school of thought, which proposed a navy composed of fast cruisers for commerce raiding and torpedo-boats for coast defence, was particularly influential in France. The first French protected cruiser was the , laid down in 1882, and followed by six classes of protected cruiser – and no armoured cruisers. The Royal Navy was equivocal about which protection scheme to use until 1887. The large , begun in 1881 and finished in 1886, were built as armoured cruisers but were often