Great Falls daily tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1895-1921, 1919-06-24

sionai delegation, and there is no doubt
Mr. Roosevelt's offer will be accepted
and that the vessel will be kept in on
of oregon'st harbors as a monument 10
the fighting qualities of the American
fleet and the resourcefulness and intrepi-
dity of American sailors.
This is the second attempt that the
navy has made to get rid of the Oregon.
Some five or six years ago the navy
aroused a storm Of disapproval by sug-
gesting that inasmuch as there was no
longer any place for her as fighting
vessel and so long as there were not
sufficient sailors to spare to keep her
in commission she might as well be taken
out to sea to serve as target for the
big guns of the newer battleships. But
the Oregon was known and loved thru
out the United States because her ia
nous race around Cape Horn and up the
South American coast had made her
familiar to every schoolboy, and the plan
of the navy department was quickly
and effectually squelched.
A Training Ship for Naval Militia.
The navy department thereupon Of
fered her to the state of California as
training ship for that states naval
militia, and she was used in that capacity
thruout the war with Germany. Her
slowness and her age barred her from
active service either overseas or as a
harbor patrol boat on the Atlantic coast.
She would have been easy prey to a
German submarine.
The Oregon was designed by Lewis
Nixon, one of the most famous of Ameri-
can naval designers, who recently was
appointed by Governor Smith as public
service commissioner. She was of the
Indiana class, and her keel was laid in
1891, the ship being put in commission
some two years later. At the time she
was built the Oregon was not only one
of the finest ships in the new American
navy. but she was one of the most form
liable vessels afloat.
Because of her race around the Horn
and the tremendous amount of publicity
and favorable comparison with other
ships that this feat brot her, she has al
ways been regarded by Americans gen.
orally as very fast vessel, altho as
matter of fact she was much slower than
many war vessels of her time, and great
deal slower than any ship constructed
within the last ten years. Her official
rating was only fifteen knots, and on her
best trials she never did more than six
teen. During the entire trip from San
Francisco to Key West, according to the
best available record, she never exceeded
f0uFteeu Aflu Il UHiI hUOts, aul uioSt I'll
the time she averaged between ten and
eleven.
Compared with the Tennessee, the
giant warship which was launched re-
Gently at the New York navy yard, the
Oregon is hardly more than a toy ves-
sell She is only 34S feet long, while the
Tennessee measures 624 from bow to
stearn.
Long Race Won Her Undying Fame.
The Oregon gained undying fame by
her race around South America and up
the coast to join the fleet, but as a mat
ter of fact her success in that feat was
not so much to the fact that she was
good boat. well designed and solidly
built, altho she had been in commission
but two years then and was practically
new, as it was the fact that she had
typical American naval crew and typical
American officers on board. They got
out of the boat the best that she had and
because Of their care Of the boilers and
their care in seeing that the vessel was
kept in tiptop condition thruout the long
voyage she was able to steam immediate
ly into the battle line and make her
fourteen knots in battle formation as
easily as the other ships of the fleet
which had not undergone such a severe
test.
The Oregon was at Bremerton when
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