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William Tinsman

 

Date and Place of Birth: Date Unknown Susquehanna County, PA
Date and Place of Death:    February 15, 1898 Havana Harbor, Cuba
Baseball Experience: Amateur
Position: Outfield
Rank: Landsman
Military Unit: US Navy
Area Served: Caribbean

William H. Tinsman was born in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, but grew up in East Deering, Maine. Coming from a seafaring family, his father, William H.H.Tinsman, having served on the USS Merrimack during the Civil War, Tinsman enlisted with the Navy in 1897 and served as a Landsman aboard the USS Maine (ACR-1), the United States Navy's second commissioned battleship.

Tinsman was the leftfielder for the ships' baseball team, and in Florida in December 1897, the team defeated a team from the cruiser USS Marblehead, 18-3, to earn the title Navy baseball champions. Their next game was scheduled with an all-star squad in Havana, Cuba, and the Maine arrived in Havana Harbor in January.

On February 15, 1898, Marine Corps Fifer C.H. Newton, the ship’s bugler and the ball team’s third baseman, blew taps as the Maine bobbed listlessly in Havana Harbor. Shortly afterwards, the Maine blew up, killing 261 of the crew, including William Tinsman and all but the baseball team’s right fielder, John Bloomer.

William Tinsman is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

Two months after the loss of the USS Maine, on April 25, 1898, saw the start of the Spanish-American War, during which the rallying cry, “Remember the Maine! To Hell with Spain!” was frequently heard.

William Tinsman

William Tinsman's grave at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia

Date Added February 25, 2013 Updated August 8, 2013

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