The Maine sunk because a large portion of her munitions stores (at least 5 tons) exploded. There's no real need for "theories"; that's pretty much an established fact.
<span>Where the theories come into it are in determining what caused the munitions stores to explode. </span>
<span>The Spanish court of inquiry that examined the wreckage concluded it most likely was due to spontaneous combustion of an adjacent coal bunker. </span>
<span>The US Court of inquiry concluded it was due to a mine explosion setting off the munitions stores. </span>
<span>More recent investigations have gone both ways; a later US court of inquiry differed in the details from the first, while still agreeing that an external explosion was the root cause. Admiral Rickover in 1974 conducted a private investigation which ultimately largely concurred with the "coal bunker" explanation; and a 1978 analysis commissioned by the National Geographic Society concluded that the evidence was on the whole in favor of an external rather than an internal source initiating the explosion. </span>
<span>Conspiracy theorists sometimes claim the US deliberately sank the Maine in order to have an excuse to go to war with Spain.</span>
