In 1898, the City of Washington, a Cuba Mail steamer, was in Havana 

 harbor when the battleship Maine blew up. Flying fragments from the 

 ill-fated vessel riddled the steamer's awnings, deck houses and some of 

 her boats. Scarcely had the echoes of the explosion died away, when the 

 City of Washington's remaining boats were lowered, and they played a 

 heroic part in rescuing survivors from the shattered battleship. The Cuba 

 Mail vessel was at once transformed into a hospital ship, and saved the 

 lives of hundreds of American seamen. 



During the Spanish-American War which followed, three of the Cuba 

 Mail's steamers were used as transports; two others were converted into 

 auxiliary cruisers. It was the Cuba Mail liner Yucatan that carried Teddy 

 Roosevelt's famous Rough Riders to Cuba and their immortal charge at 

 San Juan Hill. 



By the end of the war, officials of the Cuba Mail Line realized that 

 Havana, transformed into a clean, healthy city, was destined to become a 

 popular winter resort and a mecca for tourists. Their belief was amply 

 justified, for by 1907 increasing numbers of our tourists had begun to 

 "discover" Havana. To handle the tremendous expansion in business, the 

 company was re-formed, reorganized, and reincorporated under the laws 

 of the State of Maine. 



At this period, the Cuba Mail Lines owned nineteen ships, all under 

 the American flag, with a total tonnage of 84,411. 



The motto of the company since 1846, when it built the James Edward 

 in an American shipyard, has always been: "American ships for Amer- 

 ican sailors." Every ship owned by the line, with the exception of less than 

 a dozen vessels, was built in an American yard. 



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