The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-08-11

ridden, she quickened her gate. From
Bahla to Barbados the course is 222S
knots The Oregon did it in 1914 hours,
averaging 11.54 knots an hour
That was fast, but not fast enough.
Up the home stretch, along the 1856
knots from Barbados to Jupiter Inlet,
Florida, she sped at HI knots an hour.
making the run in 1411a hours. These fig-
ures, with many more details and deci-
mails, you may read in the dry-as-dust
records Of the navy department at Wash
fngton. But you may not read there
nor anywhere else, the vivid details Of
how it was done Your naval commander
reports with modesty and brevity that
his ship has steamed so many knots
In so many hours, and is in such and
such condition. The ethics of his pro-
fessbcn forbid him to tell Of the heart
breaking labor with valve and bearing
in the engine room, the constant struG-
Cling for steam pressure or the night
long Grimy toll of coaling. He may not
picture the inferno of the stokers and
Of the red-hot bunkers nor even speak
of the thousand anxieties Of the nights
spent in ports known to bristle with
deadly possibilities.
And so it is not of record how. in or
der to keep the Oregon driving steadily
ahead, her engineer officers turned to
for as long watches as they could bear,
and with hammer and wrench and oil
can wrought for all that was in them
in the furnace-like heat of the engine
room in order to keep her going"
Again and again ON the long cruise the
magazine and thermometers showed that
there was fire in the adjacent bunkers,
and the tackles, nothing loath, in spite
of the fierce heat and the peril, were
sent in for five-minute spells to dig down
n 10 fro mt ont Tba
not always of the best, and often went
into the bunkers- damp, so furnishing the
worst conditions for spontaneous COM
bustion. Out of the reek and sweltering
heat the tackles would at length haul
red-hot chunks, as big as water buckets
and drop them overheard. while coal
that was smoking but not yet ignited
would be spread out forward to cool
since not a pound Of 1t could be spared.
And not all the discomfort was in the
stoke holes, bunkers and engine room.
At times during the run around South
America the weather was excessively
hot, and the ships temperature ranged
from 50 to $50 degrees. Through toll and
discomfort and all practice at the game
of war was vigorously exacted OF the
men. Subcaliber target drill was con-
slant, with all weapons, from the slen-
der one-pounder to the grim monsters
Oh U1S IuiTeLS-uulll LllaC was TO De prov
ed excessively wise and useful by and by
1t was on May "a, at $3.50 o'clock in the
morning, that Capt. Clark sent a boat
ashore at Jupiter inlet and reported to
the department by telegraph that after
her phenomenal run his ship, needing
not a moment of time nor a dollar of
money for repairs, was ready for bust
ness. Two days later the Oregon was
with SIMPSONS fleet at Key West. Not
many of the men and officers who were
with the Oregon on her long journey
and were in that rafting fight at San
tiago on July 8 remain now among her
company, but both those who were with
her then and those who were not will
point you with pride to a six-pounder-
No. II forward on the starboard bridge
and tell you: There is the gun that fired
the first shot at Cervera's fleet" One
OF the Santiago men, who also played
his humble part in the race around the
continent, is still aboard-Joseph r. Rose
gunner's mate in the crew of the star
board eiGht-inch turret. He was only
eighteen when the Oregon earned her title
Of "bulldog"-a lad fresh from a Califor-
MIA grammar school-but he had the joy
Gus privilege that day of working a six
FOUNDER in the starboard waist, and, glad
though he Is to get back to his country
home with a bag full of dollars and five
years of hard experience, he will not
soon cease to think about his privilege
and how he used it. Leaning against the
forward hatch he forgot to be shy and
his voice lost it's softness while he told
OF the fight claiming for the Oregon the
honors of the day.
The batteship had done her full share
of blockade work and bombardment, ran
the tale of the gunners mate, when there
befell the best of her great good luck.
'It was a blazing not Sunday morning
and we were just about to go to quarters
for inspection" said the young man Of
the turret, when Chief Quartermagter
Johnson, who had been puzzling over
the smoke that rose from inside the har-
Dor mouth, cried: They're coming out
We had on our best whites for inspec-
ton, but we We're good and ready for
the SpaniaTds. Joe O'Shea, a marine
corps private, got in the first shot from
No. II six-pOunder just as the Maria
Teresa showed her nose in the open. The
shot went just ahead of her flying high
After that the Oregon was at it lam
mer and tongs, with the thirteen-inch
rifles leading the devils chorus" And
then ne told of the grimly Beautiful bat
tie picture, the blue sea- calm as a mill
pond, the green hills, the cloudless sky
the tropical sunlight streaming down on
the red and yellow bravery of SPANS
OOOAicO lOI4lIaJ the ClOuQS OF dense,
black smoke pouring from the tunnels
of the five ships that played hares to the
hounds that ran that day, the red flames
that trimmed turret. top and battery as
the Spaniards fought and fled Aboard
the Oregon the clamor was Titanic
Naked men toiled franticaIly at gun and
ammunition hoist, waile the conclusion
Of the great rifles Jared the massive
ship in every fiber. Tt is the claim of the
Oregon's men that her fortunate position
and her speed enabled her to get the
lions share of the fighting. They point
out that she was closer in than any
other Of the fleet and declare, with charts
and diagrams for corroborative proof.
that it was she who drove the Maria
Teresa flaming ruin, to the beach,
Then the bulldog gripped the Oquendo's
flank and soon had DER crippled and
heading for the beach. Then the star
board battery was turned on the VIZ
caya at such range that two thirteen.
inch guns found the mark with their
nalf-ton shells, piercing through and
through, setting her on fire in many
places and killing at one shot four score
of her men. Meanwhile the Colon. last
of the Spanish feet to leave the harbor
and finest and fastest of them all, was
drawing ahead Of the Chase. But for the |
Oregon she might have escaped The big |
battleship, running under forced draught |
and already at high speed, settled down |
to the sixty-mile chase. Higher and |
higher crept her speed, touching at one /
time 16 knots. At about four and one /