The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-03-07
BATTLESHIP TEXAS WILL
BE SHOT FULL OF HOLES

at the Brooklyn navy yard an 49,
dent occurred which showed aLeseu
structural weakness which cost $lzo'-
| 900 to remedy. She scraped her pllge
on the sill of the dock and settled
down like a bag of wheat in the oasin'
This was in November, 1897.
Chance Saved Her.
It was only chance that saved the
Texas from being damned and sent 70
! the bottom by the Brooklyn in the pat
| tie with Admiral Cevera's fleet off sam
tiago on July 8, 1898. Two weeks be-
i fore that she had her first night IN
! Cuban waters and narrow escape
| from a submarine mine off the Guam
! tanamo batteries.
When the Texas joined Admiral
SIMPSONS squadron off Santiago Or
ders were issued that IL the enemy
tried to escape the ships were TO close
in and engage as soon as possloie
and to sink the Spanish vessels or SEND
them ashore. On the day Of the bat
| tie the American vessels moved to-
ward the mouth Of the harbor.
When the Maria Teresa started TO
run for it. the Iowa gave the order:
"Enemy's ships escaping" then sig
nailed, Clear for action" and gave
third order "Close up" all in execu-
ton of Admiral SIMPSONS standing
| order. AS the Brooklyn steamed in to-
ward the mouth of the harbor, COM
modore Schley, who was aboard her'
| explained to her commander, capt
| Cook, that the CLOSE up" meant ne
was to keep somewhere within LOCO
yards from the enemy, SO as to be out
side of her broadside torpedo range.
| Capt Cook gave orders to port the
helm, and the Brooklyn began to turn
away from the battle line and pre-
sented her stern to the hostile cruisers
The Brooklyn ran about 1000 yaros
south and all but came into collision
with the Texas, which saved herseh oy
reversing her engines. A hole was
thus left in the blockading line through
which the enemy promptly steamed.
| The late Captain Phillip of the
Texas in describing this incident,
wrote:
| suddenly a Whit of breeze and
lul in the firing lifted the pail, and
| there bearing toward us and across our
bows, turning on her port helm, with
big waves curling over her bows ana
great clouds of black smoke pouring
/ from her tunnels was the Brooklyn.
She looked as big as half a dozen
Great Easterns. Back both engines
hardl' went down the tube to the as
tonished engineers, and in twinkling
the old ship was racing against her
self. Had the Brooklyn struck us then
In would probably have been the end
of the Texas and her half thousand
men,"
Aside from this incident the share
of the Texas in the fighting off Santi-
ago was conspicuous On June % a
shell from Santiagos MORO pierced
six-inch hole in her bow under the an
Choir and killed Frank Blakely, first
class apprentice. In the fighting on
Ju1v 2. a shell from the Almirante
Oouendo pierced the starboard bulk
head under the bridge, entered the
smokepipe and exploded.
For the two years after the war the
Texas had a peaceful and uneventful
career. ON Nov. 30, 1902, however,
when at target practice along the New
England coast the discharge Of one OF
the big guns broke the recoils, with
the result that the gun foundations
were shattered, water and steam pipes
were crushed and damage was done
that was thought at first to be impos-
sible to repair. However, she was re-
haired. and as she left the dry dock
she came into collision with the col
lier Sterling, bending many of her for
ward plates and putting her out OF
commission for another six weeks.
During the next two years she ran
aground no less than six times. She
was hard aground at Dry Tortugas
twice inside of three months. This
trick was varied slightly a little later
| in the same port when she ran on a
coral reef suffering considerably from
the scraping she received. On another
occasion she became so firmly wedged
in the mud at Newport that six tugs
were required to pull her out.
The back draught from one her
twelve-inch guns caused another bad
accident on April IS, 1905. And in
April OF the following year she was
badly damaged by running into dere-
| Iict off South Carolina. Her plates
were so badly twisted that she had to
be drv docked for several weeks. In
addition. a collision with the floating
crane Hercules at the Brooklyn navy
yard loosened her bow and kept her
| out of commission for some time.
| In July, 1905, the cruising day of the
i'll fated battleship ended and she was
| tied up at the Charleston Navy yard,
where she became floating boarding
house for enlisted men. The last ac-
tive service of the warship was flag
duty with the starred pennant Of Rear
Admiral f. ". Dickins, U. S. NJ, afloat.
That was in the spring of 1896. When
the fleet returned from the maneuyers
off Charleston in June, Rear Admiral
Dickins's command was disbanded.
The Texas was then locked at Boston
and came to Charleston for final strip
ping of its six-inch guns.
But the hoodoo followed her there
even after she was out of commission.
She narrowly escaped being blown up
by a careless visitor who was found
smoking cigarette in the powder
magazine.
Now it has been decided to shoot
her to pieces. Early in April she will
| be towed from her mornings in the
navy yard to the shoal water OF the
Chesapeake, where twelve and thirteen
inch projectiles will soon finish her.
The hoodoo of the navy viii then be
hoodoo no longer.