This is Bob Myers from the Historical Society of Michigan with a Michigan history moment. There were five young sailors from Bay City aboard the battleship. It was 1898 and they were in Cuba and most of them did not like the Navy. Elmer Mealstrup had run away from home to join the Navy. He was on board with a classmate, William Madison. Mealstrup made his feelings clear when he wrote to his mother. If these officers had only told me the truth, I never would have shipped. But they told such stories and showed us such pictures that I thought it would be like living on a yacht. William Madison couldn't understand why their ship was in Havana. He reasoned that they must be protecting American interests. Howard Hawkins, another Bay City, and wrote to his mother saying that the food set before us isn't fit for a hog. On the ship, the officers enjoyed delicacies, but the common seamen ate salt beef and hardtack. Gunner's Mate First Class Charles Earman, had lived in Roger City. In Bay City, he was trying to have his congressman arrange a transfer to another ship. The fifth Bay City sailor aboard, George Lumet, hailed from New York but lived in Bay City. Their ship was the USS Maine. She sailed into Havana harbor in January 1898 during a time of conflict in Cuba. Rebels on the island were battling the Spanish government and American sympathizers and commercial interests supported them. Officially, however, the United States was neutral and the Maine was in Havana on a friendly visit to protect American interests. On February 15, 1898, an explosion blew the Maine apart. The explosion killed or mortally wounded 266 of the 355 men aboard, almost all of them enlisted men. Of the five young men from Bay City, only 18 year old William Madison survived. Most of the crew's bodies went unidentified, including the other four from Bay City. Americans blamed Spanish saboteurs for the disaster. And remember the Maine was a rallying cry during the Spanish American War. An investigation later revealed that the explosion was probably caused by coal dust, not a Spanish mine. In 1899, the remains of the Maine sailors were interred in Arlington National Cemetery. They rest there today at the granite memorial that supports the battleship's mainmast. In 1911, the wreckage of the Maine was raised, towed out to sea and sunk. This Michigan history moment was brought to you by michiganhistorymagazine.org.