USS Maine

“Remember the Maine!”? Maine was a 324’ long battleship launched in 1889 and commissioned in 1895 (the same year as Thayer was launched).  Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbor on 15 February 1898.  Her mainmast was set up in 1915 at Arlington National Cemetery as a memorial to the sailors buried nearby.  She had wire shrouds installed that were properly spliced, wormed, parcelled, and served, as well as rattled down.  Over the years, the ratlines and service deteriorated and the wires rusted to the point of breaking.  Since the National Park Service is the agency responsible for maintaining national monuments, I was called in to reproduce the rigging as part of a larger restoration of the Memorial.  For various reasons we selected Amsteel (a UHMW synthetic material) to replace the heavy steel wire rope, which was parcelled then served with nylon seine twine for longevity.