By 1897, the US Navy had five battleships under construction, and no plans to request additional units for 1898. With the destruction of the armored cruiser in Havana harbor and the subsequent declaration of war on Spain on 25 April 1898, however, a large naval expansion program was passed through Congress. The program called for three new battleships, the first of which would be named for the destroyed "Maine". Design work began immediately, though the broad parameters for the new battleships proved to be contentious. The Board on Construction advocated a design based on , to be armed with 13-, 8-, and 6-inch (330, 203, and 152 mm) guns, though others on the board argued that repeating the , which was armed with and 6 in guns and had a speed of , would save construction time. Additionally, they pointed out that 8 in guns could not be incorporated within the displacement limit.