You Did What__ Mad Plans and Great Historical Disasters - Bill Fawcett [47]
When the secretary of the navy returned the next morning fully refreshed and temporarily renewed, Secretary Long learned what his subordinate had done. He stated that in the space of a handful of hours Theodore Roosevelt had managed to “come very near causing more of an explosion than happened to the Maine.” Long, at first apoplectic, began to try to reverse the damage, but the effects of Roosevelt’s orchestration had already begun to destabilize the precarious diplomatic situation. Spain, having witnessed the ire of the American public and weighed down by the costly efforts of putting down the repeated armed rebellion in Cuba, began to reconsider its position. When Spain refused to grant Cuba independence — a stipulation the voting public insisted McKinley tender the apparently belligerent empire — the isolationist work of the old White House guard came undone.
By the end of April 1898 America’s naval forces carried out the preponderance of Roosevelt’s crafted war plan. Though Secretary Long would not authorize attacking the Spanish coast, Commodore Dewey carried out his orders to neutralize Spain’s fleet at Manila, catching the enemy vessels at rest in the harbor and rendering them entirely unusable in a single night raid. McKinley had little choice but to give the American nation and Theodore Roosevelt the war they both wanted.
The McKinley administration reluctantly lauded Theodore Roosevelt for his handling and organization of the U.S. Navy. The short conflict, called the Spanish-American War, brought about several major advancements for a country whose leaders struggled to remain apart from the rest of the world. It revitalized the United States economy, liberated both Cuba and the Philippines from Spain and established several new benchmarks in military technology, training and strategy.
On a less tangible level, the political war machinations also brought about the realization of Theodore Roosevelt’s desire to advance his country’s prominence on the world stage and won President McKinley an unchallengeable vice-presidential running mate for his second administration. The president’s pet turned out not to be a toothless dog but a war hound of the first order and, indeed, was McKinley’s successor to the presidency.
You Hit What?
How can you have a book on massive mistakes without this one? You can’t, so here it is…
CAPTAIN EDWARD J. SMITH
THE MID-ATLANTIC, 1912
Paul Kupperberg
She was the largest man-made object in the world, one of the wonders of her age. She was the last word in luxury and refinement, a blend of nineteenth-century Edwardian opulence and twentieth-century technology, the perfect representation of her time and place. She was the RMS Titanic, and, in retrospect, this grand lady of the sea seems to have been, as much as anything, a disaster waiting to happen.
The Titanic set off on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912, from Southampton, England, in an era when the men and women listed on the Social Register were the celebrities and rock stars of the day. It was a time when the comings and goings of an upper class with names like Astor, Vanderbilt, and Straus were regularly reported in newspapers and one’s standing in the social pecking order was judged by the extravagance of travel arrangements for voyages between Europe and the United States. The Titanic, the largest and most luxurious ship ever built, would sail with some of the most famous names of commerce, industry, and the arts filling her finely appointed cabins.
She was under the command of Captain Edward J. Smith, senior captain of the White Star Line and a celebrity in his own right with wealthy travelers. He was known as the Millionaire’s Captain and had a long list of loyal clientele who cared less which ship they sailed on than that Smith was her captain. Sixty-two years old at the time he took the helm of the Titanic, the ship’s first voyage was to be his last before retirement.
Beyond the high standards of luxury and Captain Smith’s sterling reputation, the Titanic had gained fame with her reputation for being