The record-union., 1897-04-14
BATTLESHIP OREGON.
RUr1OR THAT THE VESSEL NET
WITH AN ACCIDENT
EmphaticalIy Denied by an Officer of
the Naval Station on Puget
Sound.

WASHINGTON, April 13-Word
reached the Navy Department to-day
| from Commander Whiting, in charge
of the Puget Sound naval station,
| Washington that the battleship Oregon
had grounded while approaching the
dock into which she was about to go to
have her bottom scraped and painted.
The dispatch added that the vessel had
bent her frames Cor RIBS and bottom
plating in the vicinity of the forward
turret, but it did not in any other way
| indicate whether the damage sustained
had been serious. This will be deter
/ mined by a thorough investigation,
which Secretary Long has ordered to
be made by Naval Constructor Capps,
who was the Government representa-
tive at the Union Iron Works and had
been sent to Puget Sound with gang
of men from the Mare Island Navy
Yard to scrape and paint the vessel.
His orders are to report the amount Of
damage done, and the estimated cost
of repairs.
The impression at the Navy Depart
ment is that the accident occurred
some time yesterday afternoon and that
later in the day. the officers of the YES
sci probably succeeded in getting the
vessel off the ground and inside the
| dock. The Oregon had been in the
water for over a year and had been
waiting for the spring tides to take to
the dock. She was in command of
Captain Parker, who had just been re-
lieved from duty at the Mare Island
yard and was on his first voyage on
the Oregon.
The Puget Sound dock is the only one
on the coast large enough to accommo-
date ship the size of the Oregon. The
opinion of Commodore Hickborn of the
Construction Bureau, from the infor-
nation at hand, is that the damage to
the ship is not serious, and even should
some of her frames be bent, that nee
essarily will not require that they be
repaired at the dock Should this be
necessary, however it would require
considerable time as mechanics would
have to &C there from the Mare Island
Navy Yard.
THE WARSHIP NOT INJURED.
SEATTLE, April 13-A rumor, orig
mating no one knows where, to the eff
feet that the battleship Oregon in go
ing on the drydock at the Puget Sound
naval station, injured her bottom, was
tonight emphatically denied by an Of
ficer of the station who witnessed the
docking and afterwards dined aboard
the vessel while she was in the dock
He declared that it was the most sue
cessful docking he had ever witnessed
and his long experience in the navy
gives weight to such an assertion
Rumor had it that the Oregon
scraped on some rocks when entering
the dock and damaged two of her hull
plates to the extent of $4,000 The
officer quoted laughed at this assertion.
The rumor originates from some one
interested in giving the drydock
black eye" he said. You can say most
emphatically that the docking was sue
ceSsful in every way. 1t took place
at night, and at no time was there an
insufficiency of water The assertion
that the Oregon is DANA ged is rank
nonsense. l was there the whole time
and afterwards took dinner on the bat
tleship. If anything were wrong,
should certainly know it. Of all the
bookings | have ever witnessed that of
the Oregon at the Puget Sound naval
station was the most successful