The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-08-08
BATTLESHIP OREGON FIRST
FAMOUS VESSEL WILL LEAD WAY
THRUGH PANAMA CANAL.
Her Hurried and Spectacular Trip
Around the Horn in 1898 Prompt
ed Building of Big Waterway.

WASHINGTON.-Tne Oregon, OF
which Secretary of the Navy Daniels
iplans to confer the honor of being
the first battleship to go through the
Panama canal, is now in Puget Sound
getting the finishing touches of heI
100000 modernization treatment
She is being fitted with every con-
venience and improvement, including
a new military mast and system
of fire control, wireless telegraph
outfit and a number of improved la
bor-saving devices. She will, when
she goes through the canal, still look
pretty much as she did in 1898, with
her low freeboard, but inside she
will be as new as the giant super
dreadnaught New York, whose keel
was laid in 1912 and which now is
being rushed along to completion at
the Brooklyn navy yard.
Secretary Daniels argument is that
the sentiment of history requires that
the Oregon, whose famous hurry trip
around the Horn may be said to have
caused the canal to be built, should
open that great project to the world.
The Oregon is one of the oldest
three battleships in the navy, the two
others being the Indiana and the Mas
sachusetts. All three are sister ships.
1oiI IN
Oregon was built at the Union Iron
Works, San Francisco, and was
launched in 1898.
The Oregon had passed her life in
the Pacific and she was in the Puget
Sound dry dock at Bremerton, Wash.
on March 6, 1898, when the navy de-
partment at Washington wired get
ready to the ships commander, Cap
tain Charles Edgar Clark, then at
San Diego, with the Monterey. That
same day the Oregon steamed out
of Puget Sound for San Francisco.
The blowing up of the Maine in
Havana harbor on March Is render
ed it imperative for the government
to assemble the strongest naval force
possible in the West Indies, in anticipa-
! patton of war with Spain.
1t was that emergency-with the
battleship Oregon so near and yet so
| far-that caused Uncle Sam to deter
mine to build the Panama canal. AS
| it was, there was nothing to do but
to order the Oregon around Cape
Horn, involving a journey of over
| 10, 900 miles.
Captain Clark got on March l > the
order to make the voyage, and on
March 10 he started from San Fran
cisco. He made the run to Callao,
Peru, 4,40O miles, at 10 knots aver
age speed Coaling there he hasten
ed on down the west coast of South
America and steamed at full speed
Through the Straits of Magellan, not
slackening for rocks nor darkness,
nor wind nor ice, in that stormy,
treacherous passage.
When the Oregon reached Rio he
received a cable from Washington
saying war between Spain and the
United States had been declared. The
department advised him to linger
awhile at Rio, but he pushed on to
Bahia, where Washington wired sug-
costing disabling his engines if nee
essary in order to avoid being denied
shelter at a central port 1t was fear
ed a that time that the Spanish fleet,
then on it's way west across the At
lantic. would pounce on the Oregon
and destroy it.
Come on; we believe you can do
it," finally cabled the navy depart
ment to Capt. Clark. He assembled
his officers and crew on deck, read
them the message told them he be-
Iheved the Oregon could lick the en-
tire Spanish fleet. Anyway, he'd take
a chance at it, and away he went,
right on up the east coast of South
America, with every gun and every
officer and every man ready for in
slant action.
The suspense throughout the Unit
ed States over the fate of the Oregon
was no less acute than that which
existed on the battleship herself dur
ing the final days and hours of that
memorable voyage. At Barbados
Captain Clark got word from Wash
ington that the Spanish feet had ar
rived somewhere in those waters and
was lying in wait. The captain adopt
ed the ruse of pretending to scurry
back to Brazil. He steamed south
then west, and, by working wide
detour in the Atlantic, he passed
around the Spanish feet, and on May
23-65 days after leaving Frisco
the Oregon, gray as an old seagull
appeared at Jupiter Inlet, Fla. The
whole country thrilled at the news
1t was but step" from Jupiter In
let to Havana, where, as the Oregon
steamed past the American war fee
to her place, she was saluted will
guns and flags and music. All thu
bands played There's New Bull!
in Town"
From Havana the feet steamed
around Cuba to Santiago, where thu