The U.S.S. MAINE RELIC consists of a porthole cover and section of the base mast from the ill-fated battleship Maine, mounted on a large rock in the triangle at the south end of Washington Blvd. in WASHINGTON PARK in NEWBURGH HTS. Though the cause of the explosion that sank the ship in Cuba's Havana Harbor on 15 Feb. 1898 is still uncertain, an inscription on the porthole cover attributes it to a Spanish submarine. Whatever the truth, the event played a pivotal role in the outbreak of the SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR two months later. The 6,700-lb. relic was presented to the city by the U.S. government on 29 Apr. 1912 and given its present installation in 1948.
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