Although the American vessels were built in the United States the compound armour for the turrets had to be imported at first, and it was not for some years that American-made armour was available for the navy. Four battleships were launched in the early ’nineties, and with the _Texas_ comprised the American battleship force in the war with Spain in 1898. The Americans showed their inventiveness in the matter of their warships, and not being content always to follow the lead of other nations, and being convinced that they could not make more or greater mistakes than some European naval architects had perpetrated, produced some remarkable vessels. They were the first to try the superposed turrets, or one turret placed on top of another. The _Kearsarge_ and _Kentucky_ were thus equipped, but the experiment did not give the results anticipated, and was not repeated. But the Americans had shown that the guns of one turret could fire over another turret, and some of the latest and most powerful ships of the super-Dreadnought types have their turrets arranged so that this may be done. The _Maine_, really an armoured cruiser, but described as a second-class battleship, was sent to Havana for political reasons in January, 1898, and was blown up at her moorings on the evening of the 15th of the following month, two hundred and sixty-six lives being lost. The explosion was attributed to the Spaniards, but this has been questioned, as an examination of the wreck, completed in the summer of 1911, was stated to have revealed that the cause of the disaster was the explosion of the vessel’s magazines, but a later examination is said to have shown that the explosion was external. War between the two countries was now regarded as inevitable, and both made preparations for the struggle, Spain in that lazy and incompetent fashion which assured her defeat in advance, and the United States with as much thoroughness and care as the time allowed. The resources of the latter country were far superior to those of her opponent, but Spain by no means made the best of what she had. The American naval preparations were well conceived and as well carried out. The most notable exploit in this work was the remarkable voyage of the battleship _Oregon_ from Bremerton, Washington, to San Francisco, and thence at her utmost speed round Cape Horn to Key West. It was the first time any steam warship had essayed such a feat, and that an American ship should have accomplished it was a feather in the American cap. Two or three foreign-built warships were acquired, but the European powers were friendly to Spain rather than to the United States in the war, and the latter acquired ninety-seven merchant steamers to act as auxiliaries to its fighting fleet, and distributed among them no fewer than five hundred and seventy-six guns in order that they might take part in the fighting if circumstances required.