PORTLAND, Maine - A cannon from the battleship USS Maine was returned to Fort Allen Park in Portland this morning. The cannon has been undergoing restoration work for the past 15 months and will be back in place in time for the park's bi-centennial celebrations at the end of next week.
Diane Davison is executive director of the Friends of the Eastern Promenade, which has been overseeing the Fort Allen park's restoration. "We're thrilled that the timing has worked out and that the infamous USS Maine cannon has been returned to Fort Allen Park," Davison said.
Davison says the cannon originally came to the park about 100 years ago, after being salvaged from the bottom of Havana harbor, where it had been for about 14 years.
The sinking of the USS Maine in 1898 is regarded as one of the events that helped spark the Spanish-American war of that year.