The US battleship Maine was destroyed by an explosion while moored in Havana harbor at 9:40 PM on February 15, 1898. Two hundred sixty-one crew members were killed. First reports indicated that the bituminous coal on board had released firedamp, a mixture of gases composed primarily of flammable methane that had caused a spontaneous explosion. William Randolph Hearst's publications rejected the "accidental" explanation and pressed for war with Spain. This tune is used for a number of songs including "That Crazy war" (basically the same story except in France during WWI) and two called "Whitehouse Blues" (one about McKinley's assassination and one about Herbert Hoover's defeat by Franklin Roosevelt). This song was printed in The New Lost City Ramblers Song Book.