Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "USS Maine (1889) - Guide 322" video.

@grantlee5737 three differences between the Deering and Constitution, that I see. The Deering is a schooner, vs square rigged, was built in 1919, rather than more than a century earlier, and does not have guns or boarding parties to man. Being a schooner, sails are raised and lowered by pulling on halyards, rather than climbing out on a yardarm. Being built in 1919. most of the pulling on the halyards was probably done by an engine driven winch. rather than purely manpower. According to Wiki, the crew of the Deering was 11, as you said. Compare to Preussen, also five masted, but square rigged, built in 1902, which had a crew of 45. Cutty Sark, roughly the same size as Deering, but a three masted, square rigged clipper, built in 1870, had a crew of 28-35. Wiki says that HMS Bounty, when she set sail for Tahiti in 1787, had a crew of 44, including the captain, plus two civilian gardeners. Crew on non-military square rigged ships appears to have been fairly stable over the centuries. The major labor saving came in the switch to schooner rig, and the availability of an engine driven winch to do the halyard pulling.
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@markjoenks2217 I'll take a crack at that one. Historically, after the US seized the Philippines and Guam, Spain sold the rest of it's Pacific holdings to Germany, which included the balance of the Marianas, the Carolines, and Marshals. As an ally of the UK, Japan rolled up the German possessions in the Pacific, and continued to occupy the colonies north of the Equator under a League of Nations mandate after the war. In the absence of a Spanish-American war, the first pivot would be whether Spain sold it's Pacific colonies, including the Philippines and Guam, to Germany. If Spain did sell, then Japan would take them in 1915, and would continue to hold them in 1941. If Spain did not sell, Spain was neutral in WWII, and Franco and Axis leadership were buddies, so Japan, realizing Spanish possessions were not a threat, may bypass them, on it's way to Malaya and Borneo. Historically, Japan did not invade Macau, the Chinese colony of neutral Portugal, but Japan did appoint "advisors" to the Macau government. Such an arrangement could probably have been arrived at in the Spanish Philippines. Everything else, including the attack on Pearl, would probably have happened anyway, to preclude US interference in Japanese expansion into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies.
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@vikkimcdonough6153 that is a good point. The US had quite a time putting down the rebels. That rebellion might have motivated Spain to sell the Philippines to Germany, because Spain could not hold them. If the Philippines did gain their independence, Japan would probably have invaded shortly thereafter. Seems Japan was Hoovering up every independent state in the area. Following the Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan declared itself an independent state, in spite of China ceding it to Japan. Japan promptly invaded. Korea also became independent, but became a Japanese protectorate in 1905. If the Philippines had successfully booted the Spanish, and the Germans were not interested, the Japanese would have moved in.
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