Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-02-20
Monitor Monterey
to Be Sold for Junk
After Long Servic

descendant OF tn6 original ElouItci,
the tin can on shingle" made ia
nous in the battle with the Merrimac
in Hampton Roads in the War be-
tween the States, is to leave her
homes in the far waters of the Pacific.
After thirty years of honorable serv-
ice under the flag, brief years of high
adventure and long years of plodding,
humble, faithful duty as a station
ship, she is to be sold Feb. 81 to any
junk man who will risk few hun
dred dollars in a salvage venture
The Monterey was the first steel
fighting ship built on the Pacific
coast Her keel was laid at the Union
Iron Works, San Francisco in 1889,
and in 1893. with full ceremony and
great public enthusiasm. the flag was
hoisted that marked her first COM
mission.
They had been great days, those of
her building. For in her day the ship
was mighty one in gun power and
defensive armament and all along the
Pacific Coast the size of her rifles was
talked of by people who never before
had been interested in such subject.
The first of her two 12-inch guns was
freighted westward with the folks
turning out all along the way to look
at the monster. blocked up on q
freight car. 1t had personality. 1t
had even a name. Big Betsy" ran the
lettering painted on the wooden hous-
ing and as big Betsy" it was affec-
tionately described in endless news
paper dispatches telling of the great
weapons triumphal progress west
ward
When it reached San Francisco, the
city made holiday to welcome the
monster. Men. women and children
poured in endless lines through the
freight yards to look at it. A proud
sailor perched on the car at the mug
zle would occasionally lift out the
hugh wooden plug that protected the
gaping mouth. Eager small boys
lifted high in their parents arms.
thrust diminutive heads into the
cavcrnous mouth of the gun, gazing
down the vast, dark chamber of the
bore with hair-raising visions of
awful power that lurkcd there. They
felt that discharge of this giant must
wreck the universe.
Finally, still with the people taking
large part in every step, the gun
was in place in the forward turret of
the Monterey. Came then the sister
piece and the two smaller 10-inch
rifles for the after turret, and the
monitor was ready for her place in
the navy at last.
She was NOT designed for fighting
at sea. Her mission was harbor de-
Tense. She was just a floating bat
terry. sitting low in the water so as to
offer small target for an enemy's fire,
her four heavy guns housed in walls
of chilled steel to be a final barrier
against any invader coming in from
the sea. She was NOT designed to
go outside except in smooth weather.
for it took little heaving of the sea to
send blue water foaming over her low
Gecks. Her place was inside. riding
at anchor most of her life and chief
duty as her designers saw it, would
be protection of the Golden Gate at
need.
Up and down the coast the shin
went, as the weather served, to show
herself to the people at the various
PORTS. She was a member of the
White Navy" spick and span and
cleaning white of hull and the tan
ooloring of funnel and upper works
setting her off as a picture of peace
and beauty belied only by the gleam-
ing steel of Zig Betsy" and her sis
tiers ncstcd in the massive turrets
The ship was built to be almost a
land -lubher. to live and die in the
coastal waters, sheltered by friendly
headlands from the storm and stress
of deep water.
So her first years passed. There
was no war cloud in sight and she
was show ship for the people of the
Ear West. the ship they knew best
along the coast.
Then suddenly came the war with
Spain. On dull, foggy day, the
Oregon. destined to become the hero
snip of that struggle, plowcd out
through the Golden Gate on her his
torlc rush around the Horn to the
fighting front off Santiago. Over the
cables drifted the story of Dewey's
bold dash on Manila with his cruisers
and gun boats, of his thrilling pas
ness of early morning. and his smash
ing victory over the Spanish fleet in
side.
Inside the Golden Gate the tents
were sprinsing up as by magic as an
army gathered almost overnight. 1t
was only matter of days until the
first transports loaded with troops
went out under a Setting sun, bound
5000 miles across the Pacific to end
the century rule of Spain in the Phil
ippincs. And still the Monterey Law
at her berth. ship and crew eager for
a place in the fight but without hope.
She was a home guard ship. not a
deep sea fighter and the fighting was
thousands upon thousands of miles
away.
But rumor was astir that was to
mean great things for this burly nav
al policeman. While down near Sam
tiago the pride of Spain's navy was
being bottled up against the day
when, in heroic gesture, Cevera flung
his whole fleet to destruction under
the Yankee guns that waited outside,
across the Atlantic a Spanish battle
ship, the Paleyo, was moving to in
tervene in the situation at Manila.
She was started with attending
cruisers and supply craft, 20 go via
the Suez Canal. The cables hummed
with warnings flashed to Washington
Of Dewey's peril. for this single en-
envy ship had more fighting power
than his whole fleet and there was