The San Francisco call., 1899-07-16

NM bright example Of the young
" u American manhood on which
the future of the United
States navy depends. He has just re
turned to his home for a vacation, and
brings with him a commission as first
class gun captain.
Young Browns experience in the
United States navy is just as extensive
as that of the oregon, and just as long
When this famous battleship hrst
sailed from San Francisco on her
maiden voyage William Brown OF Oak
land was one of her apprentices. NO
sooner had this lad entered upon the
life Of a sailor in Uncle Sans big bat
tieship than he decided to use every Ell
fort to obtain promotion. His charac-
ter from the first for behavior and
st11dv was of the best, and when the
Government some months ago ordered
eight of the OregOn's best lads TO go 10
a school Of gunnery in the East TO pre-
pare for commissions young bfoWn
was al once selected for one OF the
number.
During the early part Of the career OF
the Oregon there was nothing occurred
of particular interest, but in FEBRUARY
of last year, when the batueshlp was
at Bremerton in the State of Washing
ton, being thoroughly oVerhauIed, no
one guessed that she was really being
prepared for that celebrated trip
around Cape Horn to Cuba.
Young Brown during the last year OF
the Oregon's history and his own has
shown in a series of letters to his pa
rents how thoroughly one of Uncle
Sans sailors enters upon his duties.
From Bahia, in the Brazils, young
Brown sent a brief letter touching upon
the passage to that point from TINS
In This letter he saws:
I'VE arrived here last night MAY 81
from Rio de JanierO to coal up and
clear the ship for action. " e are put
ting on our war paint and clearing the
ship of all woodwork This is the first
chance we have had to write There
is a Spanish feet about 200 miles north
Of here waiting for US to come along
l think they viii get all they are look
ing for We hope to reach some Amer
lean port in eighteen or twenty days.
If we can reach the United States
without a fight we will be very lucky.
The Marietta is expected in to-day.
She has been following close behind US
all the way This is the fourth port
we have called in since we left Frisco.
We stopped at CallaO and at Sandy
Point and at Rio. The Oregon is now
painted lead color and it makes her
look very large and fierce, and / think
when the Spanish sight her they viii
think twice before they come too near.
a
time so as soon as we sight a Span
ish ship we will be ready to fire. You
may not hear from me again. but if we
come out all right l will write
Nearly a month later young Brown
continues his lOg-letters from the Ore
gon. which was then at Santiago de
Cuba
well. we have travelled over $1,000
miles looking for fight with the Span
iards and did not find one until to-
day. After cOaling up at Key West
we Joined the blockading fleet off Ha-
vana There were about ten American
warships there and we got three cheers
from all of them for our successful
trip around the Horn. AS we passed
the Indiana the band played There's
a New Bully Come to Town. and
guess the band was right.
With the New York and other ships
we at once proceeded to Santiago, leav-
ing the rest of the ships to blockade
Havana. We arrived early in the
morning off Santiago and found eight
or ten American ships there, all Of
which gave us more cheers. The great
Spanish Cape Verde fleet is inside the
harbor and is afraid to come out. They
were so anxious to get at the Yankees
before the war, but since then they
have seen some of Uncle Sans war
ships and they have changed their
tune"
Then the letter goes on to tell about
the sinking or the Merrlmac and the
bombardment Of the Spanish forts by
the American feet.
I'VE are still keeping up the blockade
and as soon as the troops come we will
give the Spaniards some more of Nc
Kinley's peace makers. You ought to
have seen the dust fly and the Span
iards too While we were firing"
" 'Tis an old story now, the battle of
the Nile,
But brave story can never die of
age"
And the same is true of the story
told by young Brown In the following
letter written while all this nation was
celebrating the great victory of which
in his unaffected language he tells:
OFF SANTIAGO DE CUBA.
July 4, 1898
Dear Mother: This is the 4th of
July and we are taking a day off TO
ourselves We have done a good deal
of work in the last three days and we
need a rest. On the 1st and I'd our
fleet destroyed some of the Spanish
batteries and yesterday we completely
destroyed the Spanish fleet off San
tiago
TT looks as though the Spanish ad-
miral had been waiting for a chance to
escape, for late Saturday night there
were nine of our ships on blockade
duty off the entrance TO Santiago.
About daylight Sunday (3d) four of our
best ships left for coal and ammuni-