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
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