The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-08-11
BULLDOG OF NAVY
MAGNIFICENT BATTLESHIP ORE
CON RETURNS HOME AFTER
EXTENDED ABSENCE
HAS BEEN TO CHINA COAST
Thrilling Tale of Her Mad Race
Against Time Told Anew
Her Work at Sam
tiago.

AAdSO
Home again, aftersthree years of MIS-
tory 1iaking, that magnificent fighting
machine, the United States battleship
Oregon, is given ever for a little while
to the people of her home port to be
sWarmed over and petted and praised like
veteran just back from the wars, says
the Cincinnati Enquirer Tugs and
launches and barges and bay craft Of
whatever sort ferry to her the people in
such crowds as to make her look from
the shore like a. very much overcrowded
floating city. Upon occasion the flags OF
all nations embower her roomy, after
deck, where society clicks it's dainty
heels along her snowy floors and sips an
inimitable navy punch, listening the
while as the story of the ships memora-
BILE cruise is proudly retold-the story of
that unforgetable July morning at San
tiago and Of the vastly significant
journey to the Orient that followed. On
any visitors day petticoats are a-fiutter
on the Oregon from her fighting tops
down to the steel-walled depths where
her great engines rest after their long
task.
1t was on June 10 that the lookout on
Point Lobos sighted the massive battle
ship through the mist that yelled the
horizon off the Golden Gate. Very soon
guns were laundering and sirens were
screaming the news to San Francisco,
and crowds were hurrying to hill and
wharf. 1t did not need the 600-foot home
bound pennant streaming from her mill
tary mast to identify the bulldog Of the
navy"
Her course around the globe had been
watched so faithfully and ner lines had
been pictured SO often that even the
stranger within the Golden Gate knew
what ship it was. And in spite Of the
cruel stone bruise on her heel the famous
battleship showed never a limp nor
halt in her gait as her graceful hulk
glided to anchorage in man-of-war row
within hail of the Iowa, the Wisconsin
and others of a distinguished maritime
company and within easy sight of her
birthplace at the Union Iron Works.
The stone bruise might we'll have made
cripple Of the Oregon-would have
famed her for many month If she had
been less stanch. The stones that
bruised her are two uncharted pinnacles
in the Gulf of Pe-chi-l The Oregon
found them on June 2S of last year,
striking them with such force as she
crept through the gloom of a foggy
morning that her keel plates were forced
upward 18 inches and her protective deck
bulged upward by the mighty blow,
The stone bruise Is some so feet long.
and before the Japanese artisans at
hure covered 1t with what is known as
SOFT patch tnere3was jagged hole
10 feet long in her stout hull. 1t would
be easy to figure out how hard the bat
tleship struck when it is known that she
pulks Loo tons and was steaming at
hVe knots an hour. The fact that she
was able to so, patch up the leak with
her own divers and apparatus and to so
control the thrush of water as to pro-
ceed under her own steam to the jap
anese navy yard at Kure Is Justly enough
a source of pride to American mechan-
les and to American navigators.
soon the Oregon will go to the Port
orchard dock for permanent repairs to
ner null that will cost about 500 GOETHE
hrst money Of consequence spent on her
since she went into commission four
years ago. 1t is the boast, not only of
the Oregon's men, but of the navy gen
orally that never in her history except
When she was aground Off the China
coast has she been in a state of unpre-
paredness, as the war experts say.
The story of the Oregon is brimn1ine.
with interest to Americans and to naval
observers the world over. It began to he |
interesting in the fateful February DAYS
OF 1928, When the horror of the Names
destruction at Havana was still thrilling
through the nation. The battleship. IN
urea, as yet, except in coastwise cruises |
and in the usual department tests. was
hauilhg out of the Puget sound dry dock,
where pllge keels had just been put on !
Hef nun, when word reached her Of the |
MAINE terrific fate. A few DAYS later
she was plowing her way down the coast |
10 san francisco for coal, ammunition. |
orders and her new commander. Capt. |
charles e. Clark. Half a thousand tons !
Oh powder, shot and shell went into her
capaclous magazines, besides all the coal
her bunkers would hold and stores for |
six months subsistence for her SEQ and |
odd men,
On March 10 she moved out through
the Golden Gate, swung in a wide curve |
10 the southwark and began the race
against time which is now part, and a |
brilliant part, Of American naval history
"a race under conditions absolutely |
unique-to join the white navy 1900 miles |
away. From March 10 to May "a the |
ll'OOo-ton battleshtp, built to fight rather |
than to- run, was thrusting herself to- |
ward the theater of anticipated war, hour |
oy hour and day by day establishing
sucf~a record as no navy ever claimed.
such as no other vessel Of her size has |
since approached, hoping to be ON the |
neld before the hunt began. There was
always the peril of the storm, grave |
enough for so heavy and deep laden a |
craft tnere were always the shoals and |
reefs OF the harbor mouths where she
must look for coal; there Were some |
times the laws of the nations forbid
ding aid and comfort by neutral power !
to power at war; there Were increas- |
ing as the battleship reeled off the knots |
UP the Atlantic, the nlenaces of Spanish |
sympathizers in half-Spanish countries. |
ready to plant dynamite among her coal /
and there were the crack ships Of SPANS |
navy lurking somewhere on the course.
apprised of and watching for the shin |
that was to be feared, Though she had /
not yet proved herself in fight
The record Of the Oregon's steamine |
was enough honor for any ship Four /
teen Thousand five hundred and ten knots /
She raced, burning 1909 tons Of the best
coal money could buy. In actual run