The "Maine": An Account of Her Destruction in Havana Harbor. The Personal Narrative of Captain Charles D. Sigsbee
New York: Century Co., 1899. Good. Item #14774
New York: Century Co., 1899. First Edition. Octavo (21cm.); publisher's pictorial green cloth stamped in purple, orange, and yellow; xiv,[2],270pp.; photographic portrait frontispiece, forty-six (46) leaves of photographs, additional illus., including plans and facsimiles, throughout text. Cloth a bit scuffed and bumped at margins, brief spotting to sizing, spine rather toned, contemporary ex libris to front pastedown and later (1938) ownership inscription to front free endpaper, frontispiece separated and suffers from shallow loss to fore-edge not approaching text, textblock rather toned and brittle. A Good copy only.
First-hand account of the sinking of the "Maine" by the ship's captain U.S. Rear Admiral Charles D. Sigsbee (1845-1923). The explosion aboard the ship, which took place in February, 1898, was established by some sources to have been caused by the spontaneous combustion of the coal bunkers, but Sigsbee argues here that not only was the ship mined, but the American newspapers that covered the events did so suspiciously quickly. "The inference was clear: the newspaper must have been possessed of a knowledge of the mine before the Maine was blown up" (p. 126). Little has been picked up from this rather outlandish conspiracy.
Price: $60.00