Howdy Carlos,
First my apologies for not properly putting my replies after the quoted section. My email application has decided not to let me send emails, which has resulted in my replies being made form my ISP's web based email browser. So far my attempts have resulted in an ugly mess, some day I may figure out how to get things to work, but don't hold your breath my track record stinks. ;-)
Depending on the source documentation, I did a little more digging, one source stated that the investigation board concluded the explosion was external to the hull and did not point the finger at Spain. Another source, as I recalled earlier, could not concluded if the explosion was internal or external, and two other sources concluded from the evidence that the explosion was internal from either the power magazine or coal bunkers. The material I've dug through however agree that there was no direct mention of Spain being involved, not that the omission stopped a certain newspaper editor.
In PBS.org archives there is at least one document speculating that a certain newspaper editor may have somehow been responsible for the explosion. On that score the suggested plot line of the Imperium or other stellar/interstellar government purposely destroying a warship or civilian vessel as an excuse to take over a system government is very plausible.
My reaction in real life or as a Traveller character, provided I survived, would be very negative and I do bare grudges, my first target was the official who gave me the assignment.
Tom R
From: "carlos web" <xxxxxx@mail.de>
To: "TML" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 2, 2016 10:51:50 AM
Subject: Re: [TML] Understanding World Domination.
Tom,
of course the Maine sank. The "Sinking of the Maine Lie" was the misattribution of the Sinking to Spain, used as an excuse to start the '98 war. There are two theories that I know of, one is accidental sinking used opportunistically, the other is deliberate sinking ordered directly or indirectly by some of the highly placed politicians you refer to. I agree that the war would have happened no matter what, Spain was the weakest European power at the time after a century of civil wars (three!) and military insurrections and hence the easiest target. The US attack was the nail on the coffin (we still speak of the "disaster of 98").
But enough RL history discussions prone to get us into a flame war. What I was referring to as an interesting Traveller plot was: the PCs enroll in an Imperial ship, or are offered a job to bring it somewhere. The ship has been designated by Imperial high-rank officers to be destroyed and attribute it to an attack by a pocket empire, against which war will subsequently be declared with the support of public opinion... plan A involves an explosive artifact which the PCs will find while in jump, Plan B a masked ship waiting for them at the destination coordinates... now, how will the (Imperial) PCs react when they realize the Imperial government has decided to blow them up?
--
Carlos Alós-Ferrer
Chair of Microeconomics, University of Cologne
http://www.decisions.uni-koeln.de
Am 01-Feb-2016 23:55:49 +0100 schrieb tmr0195@comcast.net:
First, I am probably going off the topic of "Understanding World Domination"
Hello Carlos Web,
The sinking of the USS Maine in Cuba's Havana Harbor is not a lie, the rusting remains are still there. The lie is what caused the explosion that sank the ship. Of course back then there were a number of highly placed politicians and wealthy citizens that felt that to be a world player the USA needed to have colonies.
SNIP
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