Cabinet card portrait of John R. Bell

David Hinkle, American, 1837 - 1916 · 1885

John R. Bell was a steward on the Battleship Maine. Bell officially joined the Navy in 1871, although he may have begun his service as a servant to a naval officer during the Civil War. Prior to the Maine, he served on the St. Louis and Lancaster. He was known as a very kind man, beloved by the sailors on the ships he served. When the Maine was lost in Havana harbor in 1898, Bell was one of the missing men whose body was never recovered from the wreckage.