In October 2000, the Cuban deep-water research vessel Exploramar was some four miles off the coast of Havana, Cuba. Her crew of bright young scholars was anxious to use the sophisticated underwater cameras and diving apparatus sitting high and drive on the deck. Suddenly the screen before them revealed sonar images from the ocean bottom 600 fathoms below of an object that looked out of place with the terrain. The crew of the Exploramar was looking at the first image of the Battleship Maine to be seen in over 90 years.
Quickly the deep-water cameras and equipment attached to the ROV-CALIPSO operating vehicle machine was lowered into the deep. It was not long before actual photographs of the U.S.S. Maine were being transmitted to the screens above.
Within one month e-mail and a CD Disc were transferring the images to Joe Pais in his office at the Old Capitol Building in Tallahassee. An avalanche of calls followed from media across the country wanting confirmation of the deep-water discovery of the battleship.
Pais, who served as chairman of the U.S. Battleship Maine Centennial held in Key West throughout 1998 was busy answering requests for information.
"This discovery ends the mystery of where the Battleship Maine is 104 years after she exploded in Havana Harbor," Pais said. "It does not, Pais continued, "answer the question of what caused the explosion on the evening February 15, 1898."
Pais believes that the discovery will force complacent naval historians to evaluate the theory that the Maine suffered an internal explosion that eventually led to the loss of 266 members of her crew.
"The terrorist attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen by two men in a dingy and the multiple terrorist attacks by small cells of individuals on September 11 and thereafter shed new light on the possibility that the Maine could easily have been destroyed by an external marine mine in Havana Harbor," Pais said.
All of these issues will be explored in a new documentary film "Search for the Maine" produced by WUSF-TV which will have a South Florida premiere on ATT Channel 19 in Key West 15 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The hour long documentary includes scenes from Havana and Key West, interesting interviews with American historians, researchers aboard the Exploramar, and descendants of officers aboard the battleship Maine when it exploded. The film highlights many photographs of the USS Maine in its final resting place.
"It is a historical and educational experience that you will not want to miss— a real part of Key West history you must see," Pais concluded.
The film will be rebroadcast on February 18 at 3pm and again at 6pm.