Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1898-07-29
SIGHTED THE FUROR.
Oregon boy Discovers the Torpedo
Boat.

Sergeant Fred A. Ramsey, of the bat
tle-ship Oregon, has written to his faith
er at McMinnville, a graphic description
OF the great naval battle of July 5, the
letter being dated July 7, and it appears
in the Telephone-Register as follows:
Sunday morning, July 5. we were all
standing by to go to quarters. First
call had been sounded at 8 :26 A. NJ, and
we were waiting for assembly. The
chief quartermaster reported The enc
my's ships are coming out of the harbor,
sir In an instance all the long glasses
on the bridge were in use and directed
toward the entrance of the harbor. Lieu
tenant Allen was officer of the deck, and
we could see him smile and take good
look with his glass in order to be sure
before he sent word to the captain. He
very cody lowered his glass, and tele-
phoned to the orderly: Tell the cap
tain that the enemy's ships are steaming
out OF the harbor, AS soon as the word
was repeated to Captain Clark, he touch
ed the electric button which starts the
signal gangs all through the ship ring
ing, and notifying every man in the ship
to get to his station for battle as quickly
as he could.
81 will never forget the grand sight
which we witnessed on that morning
four hrst-class cruisers, two torpedo
boats and one torpedo-boat destroyer,
steaming out of the narrow entrance, one
after the other, at full speed. The Ore
gon was little over three miles off the
entrance Of the harbor when we first
sighted them, and we sounded our whis-
tie three times, and then Private O'Shea
fired the challenging shot from one of
our siX-pounders, as the first ship bow
came in view around Moro castle, which
was followed by an eight-inch, armor-
piercing shell from our after eight-inch
turret on the starboard side.
owe were the first ship to see the ene-
my, the first to fire shot, and the last
to fire shot. The engagement started
at 9:29 A. M, and closed at IA P. NJ,
60 miles from Santiago de Cuba. In
about three minutes after we started to
engage the enemy all the other ships
were engaged and doing all they could to
stop the advance of Cervera; but the
Spanish were plucky, and steamed to
the west under forced drought. Captain
Clark grasped the situation in moment
and headed the Oregon directly into the
Spanish column in order to stop the first
one, but the smoke was SO thick that we
could not see to fire at that moment
Soon we had crossed the bow of the Iowa
and could see the enemy. At this time
our guns opened fire, and never were
guns loaded and fired so quickly and ac-
curately as ours. We were firing on the
Oquendo. We could see her returning
the fire from her port broadside, and her
shells were striking all around us. Some
of them exploded over us, others singing
their death chants through our canvas
netting; but this never stopped our
steaming toward them. We kept going
ahead until the rangetinder indicated
that we were $50 yards from the enemy.
AT this time the captain headed her to
the westward, so as to be parallel with
the Spanish. After we had fired at her
for seven minutes we could see her rap
idly sinking. Her stern was about three
feet out of water andone smokestack and
mast were shot away. She headed in
shore, and we kept firing with our 49,
inch guns. Soon we could see flash,
then the explosion of one of her boilers.
About the same time her colors were
shot away, and she was run on the
beach. During the last five minutes our
after secondry batteries were dealing out
death to the torpedo-boat Pluton, which
was sunk about 1900 yards from shore,
and all hands were lost.
1--WE were resting from our rapid fire
and wiping the 'saltpeter' from our eyes
when | sighted the Furor right astern
stealing upon us under the cover of our
smoke, bent on sending us to the bottom
by torpedo, but alas, she had reckoned
wrong, as breeze from shore cleared
away the smoke, and she was target
Tor our guns. We opened with our six
Founders (the writer had charge of
battery of six-poundersl and we could
see them strike and explode on her.
Naval Cadet Kinehoff was told of her
coming aft. Presently, after he had
taken deliberate aim, he fired and struck
amidships. She was cut in two, and her
boilers exploded she sunl 20 +ho ho.4,,,