Victor Gillam’s political cartoon “Remember the Maine! And Don’t Forget the Starving Cubans!” appeared in Judge magazine on May 7, 1898. It references the events of February 15, 1898, when the American battleship USS Maine exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba. The blast caused the deaths of about 266 American sailors. Although the explosion was almost certainly the result of a boiler failure, the popular American press blamed the Spanish government of Cuba, spreading the story that the battleship had been destroyed by a Spanish mine (a waterborne bomb). Within days the press had demanded that President William McKinley declare war on Spain, launch an invasion of the Caribbean islands the European nation had held since the time of Columbus, and seize Spain’s remaining American territories.