The San Francisco call., 1896-05-07
THREW FOAM AND
SPRAY AHEAD,
First Real Trial of the
Great Battle Ship
Oregon.
MADE TWELVE KNOTS.
With Her Engines at Half
Power She Exceeded All
Expectations.
PREPARING FOR THE RACE.
Her Engines Worked Perfectly and
the Ship Will Win Golden
Premiums.
PREPARING FOR THE RACE.

Just as the gray dawn of yesterday
crept over the hills back of Oakland, the
windlass of the Oregon creaked ana rat
tied as the big battle-shlp was brought to
her anchor. She was to start training
training for run against time-and her
engines had to be loosened up and her
boilers well heated before the time of trial
comes.
The floating fortress must be trained for
her run as carefully as a record breaker
trains for a race. Her valves have to be
set so as to give most advantageous SER
vice, the bearings have to be turned to
wear smooth and true, her pipes and
boilers must be blown out clear of all OBJ
structions, and her plates must be free
from barnacles and seagrass. When she
was on the dock some days ago, she was
cleaned and painted-now she is trimming
her engines to do the most work with the
steam supplied from the boilers.
Leaving her anchorage, the Oregon
steamed up the bay until off Hunters
Point. and then she was Swung" to rec
tify her compasses. These being satlsfac-
torily adjusted, she headed for Red Rock.
On her decks were Henry I. Scott,
president of the works Admiral Boards slee,
who will be president of the official trial
board; Lieutenant Stoney, United States
Navy Chief EngineerWilson, United States
Navy; Lieutenant a. F. Fechteler, United
States Navy; Nelson E. Whitaker of the
Whitaker Iron Works of Wheeling, w.
Va; H. c. Mechliug OF New York, William
r. Eckart, consulting engineer of the
Union Iron Works; Robert Forsythe, who
was in charge of sthe engines and ship
generally Captain G. NJ. Goodall, who was
captain and pilot; DR.. Joseph Soper, W.
H. Harris of the Hongkong and Shang-
hal Bank, Robert 2. Foreman, John f.
Merrill, Lieutenant Thomas f. Rulin,
naval constructor, and several others.
AS she passed up the bay, ships that be-
fore seemed large dwindled almost into
inslgnifcance beside her ponderous bulk.
II is not that the Oregon is large in dimen-
sions, although she is ample in beam,
length and draft. but in every curve and
line from the truck of her military mast
down past her fTowDing guns and armored
turTets TO her Keel strength and power
speak as plainly as the roar of her siren.
As she stands to-day she weighs $500 tons;
when she makes her record she will be
over 10000 tons; she is 348 feet long, 80
feet 5A inches beam, and she draws "a feet
of water aft and about % feet forward.
She will get $50, 900 for every quarter knot
she will make over fifteen knots.
As she plowed up the bay on her way to
Red Rock steam ers 'saluted her on every
side. She was not running fast, the en-
gines will be gradually worked up to the
supreme test, but even at half speed evil
QencGS
on every side.
Curling away from her bows q seething
foaming wave reached for a hundred feet
on either side. Her heavy lines forward
seemed TO pick up the water as she went
on, and throwing it ahead of her churned
it again and again into wall OF white.
Just above where her keen cutwater
divides the waves the fiat end of torpedo
tube threw the lifted water out into a
great fan, and it gave her whole stern the
appearance of being buried in a bank of
snow. Along her sides the bow-wave was
thrown out again in a second line OF white,
and behind ner she left wake OF swirls
and eddies bubbling up from the thrust OF
her powerful screws.
Twelve knots and over was her best rate
yesterday, but she did this at half
speed and with an ease which augurs
well for her run for wealth and fame.
This does not mean that at full speed the
Oregon will cover twenty-four knots in an
hour, but it does mean that sixteen knots,
one knot over the extreme speed she is
expected to make, is within her grasp.
Far down in the bowels of the ship,
however, where the engines throbbed and
beat, and where forty firemen peered into
as many raging furnaces, was where the
real work and worry and watchfuiness
were concentrated.
Like the strokes of pendulum the con-
Meeting rods threw down and up, over and
shafts. Wherever one piece of steel rubbed
on another there was a man with an OIL
can, and spraying down on the main crank
bearings were Jets of cold water. AS the
cranks spun around drops. like rain, were
thrown around the engine-room.
Without sound almost the main en-
gines swung up and down, with only the
Miss and groan OF the steam, like the
heavy breathing of a toiling laborer, to
tell of the power they welded. They
were making Ito revolutions minute
with 165 pounds pressure and $500 horse
power represented the thrust of their right
arms. They can do more-much more-if
only Forsythe would open wide the valve
that stops the flow from the boilers; but
down in Santa Barbara Channel the chance
will come, and there is no expert who has
seen the ryhthmic beat of that living
steel but says that they will nobly avail
themselves of it.
But the engine-room was not silent, for
the cogwheels of condenser Jared and
clattered so loud as to make conversation
difficult. The condenser is OF Government
pattern. The builders wished to put in
one of local design, which at least had the
virtue of silence but the Government in
sisted, and so the engine-room that would
otherwise be silent is made to.resound.
Forward of the engIne-rooms nearly
fifty furnaces, each with man attending
il, hissed ana cracked and consumed coal
at q T3Ie almost 1DCODcelVdDle. 1HcIc
was Just a good draft on-not the real
forced draft which shrieks down into the
firerooms from the blowers with the force
of gale at sea, but just enough, the lire
men said to keep her going" 1t was
not hot-that is, for fireroom. Not much
over hundred was ali a thermometer
could show. but the proximity 10 the
fierce heat of the furnaces and the flames
that leaped and played around iredoors
whenever they were opened gave sug-
gestion of the temperature within and
made it seem hot, anyway. The frerooms
Will be hotter under forced draft, but they
are not expected to go above 12O. To a
marine fireman. it seems this is but like
warm day in summer.
Charles Miner Goodall was in command
of the Oregon as she picked her way up
and down the roadstead. The import
ance of his position may be imagined when
. it is known that often there was no more
than four or five feet under the vessels
keel. 1t is not often that a ship OF twenty
four feet draft is sent up and down the
bay on a trial trip. The course was be-