1 x13/16 x 1/8 in. piece of the funnel ("stack") from the USS Maine, the U.S. Navy battleship which was destroyed in a massive explosion in Havana Harbor in1898, triggering events leading up to the Spanish-American War and fueling the rallying cry from an outraged public "Remember the Maine!" 

Relic is accompanied by a 1-page typed letter signed dated 28 July 1919, in which the owner of the relic describes its acquisition. The letter reads, in part: "The wreck of the U.S. Battleship Maine ... still was laying in the harbor when I visited Havana in July 1905, notwithstanding no one was permitted to approach it, still a friend of mine at that time while out with a native oarman, went so close to the wreck that he was enabled to break off a piece of the funnell [sic] without being observed, and gave it to me...." The letter is signed "Jos. I. Levy."

Russian-born Joseph I. Levy (1852-1949) was President of the Ashland Cigar & Tobacco Co. in Ashland, Wisconsin, when he inked his name to the letter of provenance accompanying this USS Maine relic. He arrived in the United States with his family ca 1860 and settled in Ashland in the late 1890s after his marriage. His provenance letter closes indicating the importance he placed upon the relic offered here, calling it "a valuable relic for the future." 

[Spanish American War, Cuba, USS Maine] [Relics, Militaria, Accouterment, Equipment, Uniforms]