USS Maine (ACR-1) known for her loss in Havana Harbor on the evening of 15 February 1898. Sent to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban revolt against Spain, she exploded suddenly, without warning, and sank quickly, killing nearly three quarters of her crew. The cause and responsibility for her sinking remained unclear after a board of inquiry investigated. Nevertheless, popular opinion in the U.S., fanned by inflammatory articles printed in the "yellow press" by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, blamed Spain. The phrase, "Remember the "Maine!" To hell with Spain!", became a rallying cry for action, which came with the Spanish–American War
The Sinking of the Lusitania the US entering the war. His own papers' readers were increasingly pro-war in the aftermath of the "Lusitania". McCay was as well, but was required to illustrate anti-war and anti-British editorials by editor Arthur Brisbane. In 1916, McCay rebelled against his employer's stance and began to make the pro-war "Sinking of the Lusitania" in his own time. The sinking itself was never photographed. McCay said that he gathered background details on the "Lusitania" from Hearst's Berlin correspondent August F. Beach, who was in London at the time of the disaster and was the first reporter at the scene. The film