Hampton Roads Naval Museum
Spanish-American War![Location Pin](https://wejunket-comb.b-cdn.net/wp-content/themes/wejunket/assets/images/location_pin.png)
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Hampton Roads Naval Museum
41. Spanish-American War![Location Pin](https://wejunket-comb.b-cdn.net/wp-content/themes/wejunket/assets/images/location_pin.png)
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The United States fought a short, decisive war with Spain in 1898. The ongoing bloody Cuban insurrection against Spain had many American sympathizers. The immediate cause was the destruction of USS Maine in Havana harbor, which was blamed on Spain. Nearly three-quarters of the battleship's crew died as a result of the explosion. While the cause of this great tragedy is still unsettled, contemporary American popular opinion blamed Spain. After war was declared, the Navy established a "flying squadron" for the protection of the east coast when the Spanish fleet was on the move at the beginning of the war. The Spanish Squadron crossed the Atlantic to Cuban waters, and was quickly trapped at Santiago, Cuba. On July 3, 1898, four cruisers and two destroyers emerged from the channel, heading west in a spectacular run for freedom. The Spanish force was no match for the American blockading force. Led by USS Brooklyn and USS Oregon, the US ships destroyed or grounded the Spanish warships. The Navy did not only rely on battleships during this period. Small and effective ships like the Winslow used a new weapon - the torpedo - to threaten more powerful ships. Torpedos were, in effect, underwater rockets filled with combustible chemicals, materials, and compressed air. When the torpedos were aimed and propelled forward, the combined contents exploded upon impact with an enemy ship. Torpedos were among the most intimidating of advanced war weaponry. The subsequent victory of the US fleet in the Caribbean and at Manila Bay in the Pacific gave the country a new chain of possessions stretching from Puerto Rico to the Philippines.
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- Puppet Tour of the Museum
- Hampton Roads
- Seaman's Jacket & ECD uniform
- Battle off the Virginia Capes
- Ville de Paris
- Capture of USS Chesapeake
- 18-Pounder Naval Cannon
- USS Chesapeake
- USS Constellation
- US Gunboat 135
- American Musket, 1812
- First American Drydock
- USS Delaware
- USS Norfolk
- Fore and Aft Hat
- USS Pennsylvania
- Intro to the Civil War
- The Anaconda Plan
- Life At Sea
- Confederate Defenses
- USS Monitor
- CSS Virginia
- Duel of the Ironclads
- USS Cumberland
- USS Congress
- USS Minnesota
- Capture of Roanoke Island
- G.W.P. Custis
- USS Roanoke
- USS New Ironsides
- Engine Room Clock
- Gangway Headboards
- USS Onondaga
- Fall of Fort Fisher
- CSS Richmond
- CSS Florida
- The Civil War Final
- Shipfitters' tools, 1800s
- Steel Navy
- USS Maine
- Spanish-American War
- The Great White Fleet
- Jamestown Exposition
- Naval Station Norfolk
- Birth of Naval Aviation
- USS Truxtun (DD-14)
- USS Subchaser 136
- Mines in WWI
- Propaganda Posters
- USS New York (BB-34)
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