Is This The USS Maine? Cuba?

Hi everyone. I won this old circa 1890's photo album on ebay. The seller had only one lousy picture of the album and the description just said: old photo album. I took a chance on it sight unseen and figured for $10 who cares if the photos inside aren't interesting. I've wasted $10 on stupider things, lol.

When I got it, inside were many interesting amateur photos of nature scenes, an old homestead, a beach house, interior home scenes, cats, Elephant Rock in New Hampshire, people posing in various places, old bicycles, cannons and some ships. Underneath the photos of the ships it said USS Maine. Some other photos showed a tropical location with shacks being built and palm trees in the background. My dad said it looked like Cuba, but it could be anywhere and was possibly from somewhere in South America.

A lot of the nature scenes were from New Hampshire. On the backs of one of the photos of a white haired man it said Jonathan Dalgleish Newport New Hampshire Old Homestead. So far what I was able to find was an old book on Google dated from 1901 that said Jonathan Dalgleish was a cocoa merchant. I typed in Jonathan Dalgleish and the word Cuba and that is how I found that.

The name of the book I found that in was:
Official Commercial Directory of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Entire West Indies ...
By Spanish-American Directories Co., New York

What I am looking to find out is if this is really the USS Maine and could the other pictures be of Cuba? I tried to compare these photos with known USS Maine photos, but cannot tell for sure if it is the Maine. In some of the pictures I found of the USS Maine on google images, the smokestacks or columns on the top were different. Apparently in different photos I've seen, I saw pictures of the USS Maine with different amounts of smokestacks on them at different times.

What may I have here? Thanks in advance for your help.
More pictures to follow this post...

 

Thanks for your reply. I wonder what ship this is then? Maybe someone might come along and recognize it and give us the name.

 

A good buy for $10!

 

I agree that there are several different ships. This photo


appears to be BB-5, USS Kearsarge (also here), or possibly the very similar BB-6, USS Kentucky. The Kearsarge appears to have spent more time around Cuba during that time period (1903), so it might be the more likely one.

These two photos


appears to be BB-1, USS Indiana, or one of the other similar Indiana class battleships (BB-2 or BB-3).

 

Could you tell us why you believe your album dates to the 1890s?

Debora

 

This ship

may be ACR-2 USS New York. This was Admiral Sampson's flagship during the Spanish-American war.

 

Based on the ships and their histories, I'd say the ship photos, if taken in Cuba, were taken between late 1898 and early 1904. You should also consider Puerto Rico as a possibility for location as well, but same time period.

 

Well, the order of the photographs should provide a sense of chronology. Which are first? And which come later?

Debora

 

The last ship photo

appears to be the USS Texas. Another photo on ebay.

 

Thanks! I LOVE it and am enjoying it so much.

 

Thanks so much. For the price of a Starbuck's coffee and a muffin I got a lifetime of memories

 

Most of the pictures have that Gay 90's look to it and when I saw the notations saying USS Maine underneath the ship photos, it made me think it was most likely around the 1890's. I also saw a bunch of ladies with those over sized, exagerated puffed out sleeves and the hats they were wearing looked 1890's in style. I could be wrong though.

 

I didn't really look over the book. I just saw his name and next to it was the mention of cocoa merchant. I will look at it further later on. Thanks for telling me this.

 

Smallaxe, thank you so much for this information. I really wouldn't know what to look up if it weren't for you. This is really good help.