what do we got here original blueprints to the uss maine 1887 to 1889 before the ship is sunk
that's really really cool these are the propelling
machinery and also 10-inch turret mounts whoa um i've definitely never seen anything like this
i came to pawn shop to sell my blueprints of the uss maine
i got these from at antique magazine i've researched for over 10 years they're the only
ones that i know of that exist i like to sell them because i could use the money the main was one of
the first battleships ever built it was over 300 feet long massive armament yeah the amazing thing
is rotating turrets was such a massive advance 20 30 years prior to this i mean warships basically
you had your guns sticking out the side you had to line up next to each other these were like some
of the first guns that could actually shoot over the horizon these things would shoot like 15 miles
it's also the ship that uh ended up blowing up in the was it cartagena it blew up
havana harbor havana harbor okay relations between the united states and spain were
already really stressed the blowing up the main basically was the excuse to start the
spanish-american war exactly um the battle cry for the spanish-american war was remember the maine
when the uss maine blew up it was most likely an accident but there was so much tension between
the united states and spain basically we wanted an excuse for war this right here appears to be
boilers uh these i imagine would be piston driven steam engines yes this is the gun this
is the turret it's on and they would rotate on this right here um this is the back of the ship
this is basically the way things were stored that is neat so how much do you want for them
i want 9 000 for this one i want 6 000 for that one and i want 10 000 for this one
okay um these are my big concerns here okay they're not blueprints okay blueprints are
gonna have measurements we have no measurements here right so these are the preliminary designs
before those guns were put on the ship these were me all right i want to find out exactly what these
are you know i got a buddy who collects all this military stuff um do you mind if i haven't come in
and take a look at it not at all let me give them a call all right sounds good this is an incredible
find this is one of the most important ships in american history this inspired the battlecry
remember the main the sinking of this ship started a war if these are the preliminary designs
this could be worth a lot of money wow guys call me down to the shop when they need to
know something about a particular antique or they need to know of value the uss maine is uh
to me it's interesting because sort of cause the spanish-american war or not cause it but give us
reason to to go and get involved the uss maine is important more for its political history the
u.s government had sent it into havana to sort of let the spanish know we were there and it blew up
no one really knew why the one thing we got out of the spanish american war side from the philippines
was guantanamo bay and as we all know it's still around do they all say isaac uh friedenwald yes
this one also says it and this one also says it so he's a lithographer in baltimore
he's a publisher in baltimore this is exactly what publishers do they're going to put
their name on the document i don't buy these having been printed by the us government
they had private sectors that did work for the government point taken but i've never seen
government documents that have like a private publisher they have entire buildings devoted
to printing stuff the ship was finished i think in 1889 and it was launched in 1890. what's the
date um 1889. okay that doesn't make sense why would these be preliminary designs if they would
have had to have designed this years earlier i mean this was that's what i'm thinking to
design and make a gun like this would have taken years at least right rick i know what these are
i think these are propaganda documents i mean after the main sank the united states government
used publishers to make a big deal about the fact that the maine had sunk and it got us into
the spanish-american war these are definitely not construction documents i can tell you that
i think they're old i think they have some history but this these were probably printed after
after the main went down all right i disagreed if you checked the date the ship had not been
launched yet so i believe you're wrong to say that these were propaganda or made after the maine was
sunk why would a government take their top secret design for a new battleship and send it off to
a printer in baltimore it doesn't make any sense they're interesting looking i mean imagine framing
these and putting them in your library if you like naval history this would be great other than that
i don't see a lot of value here tops tops if you really want to put something classic looking
you know up on a wall framed three or four hundred bucks a piece yeah am i close well no i want 25
000 for it yeah it's it's like totally different planets these are not what you say they are these
are what i say they are because these were made before the ship was sunk that may be true okay
let's just say yeah they outsourced these for some reason and these did have a pre-syncing relevance
they're still not construction documents i mean they're to me they're one of many copies made and
they were made for something maybe they were made for an official purpose but i still think they're
worth three or four bucks so that's just my opinion thanks craig yeah you're welcome if
anything these were copies they could have been copies made during the period more likely in my
opinion they were made after the uss maine was sunk well i may be expert on a lot of things but
he's no expert on this i can tell you right now because i am 100 positive these are not
propaganda nor were they made after the maine was sunk okay i mean it's just
that's my guy i mean i got to go with what he says i don't think someone's got to pay that
kind of money i just don't i just believed that there was a lot of these probably predated up
if there was a lot of them printed where are they that it's the only one they might be the only ones
but i still don't think they're going to bring that kind of money okay um thanks for coming in
there right we weren't able to make a deal because the expert's opinion was different than mine
i'm gonna keep trying to sell them somebody will buy them eventually i know they will
you