Then there is Hanlon's razor - Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.

That is also good advice.

Interesting you mentioned the Maine. Officially, it was destroyed by an external explosion (e.g. mine). But the surviving sailors, and subsequent investigation (unofficial) has determined moderately conclusively that it was a coal storage fire that heated the bulkheads of the powder magazine, which then set off the explosion**. So the official explanation appears to be wrong.

Note: I looked it up, and apparently Rickover (of submarine fame) revisited this in the 70s and found the likely cause was the coal bunker igniting the powder magazine. It isn't clear to me that the official explanation was revised, despite Rickover's paper. NatGeo also investigated it, but didn't arrive at a solid conclusion. Discovery Channel also investigated, and concluded it was a coal bunker fire.



**Putting the coal (or later, fuel oil) bunkers next to the powder magazines seems ill-advised. Just sayin'...

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