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Statistics:
Displacement: 11,688 tons
Length: 351'2"
Beam: 69'3"
Draft: 24'
Speed: 16 knots
Complement: 473
Armament: Four 13" guns; eight 8" guns; four 6" guns; twenty 6-pounders; six 1-pounders; six18" torpedo tubes
Class: Indiana
Text from The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships published by the Naval Historical Center
Oregon (Battleship No. 3) was laid down 19 November
1891 by Union Iron Works, San Francisco, Calif.; launched
26 October 1893; sponsored by Miss Daisy Ainsworth; and
commissioned 15 July 1896, Capt. Henry L. Howison in command.
After commissioning, Oregon was fitted out for duty on the
Pacific Station, where she served for a short time. Leaving
drydock on 16 February 1898, she received news that Maine had
blown up in Havana harbor the previous day. As tensions with
Spain grew, on 9 March Oregon arrived in San Francisco and
loaded ammunition. Three days later she was ordered on what was
to become one of the most historic voyages ever undertaken by a
Navy ship.
Oregon departed San Francisco on 19 March for Callao, Peru, the
first coaling stop on her trip around South America to the East
Coast for action in the impending war with Spain. Arriving at
Callao 4 April and departing several days later, her commanding
officer, Capt. Charles E. Clark, elected not to stop at
Valparaiso, Chile, for coal but to continue on through the
Straits of Magellan. On 16 April Oregon entered the Straits and
ran into a terrific gale that obscured the perilously close
rocky coastline. For a time she was in great danger, but just
after dark she let go her anchors on a rocky shelf fringed by
islets and reefs, and safely weathered the night. Before dawn on
the 17th, the gale moderated and Oregon proceeded around Cape
Forward to Punta Arenas, where she was joined by gunboat
USS Marietta (PG 15), also sailing to the east coast.
Both ships coaled and departed on the 21st for Rio de Janeiro,
keeping their guns manned all the while for a Spanish torpedo
boat rumored to be in the area. Head seas and winds delayed
them, and they did not reach Rio until 30 April 1898. There,
Oregon received news of the declaration of war against Spain,
and on 4 May she left on the next leg of her remarkable journey.
With a brief stop in Bahia, Brazil, she arrived at Barbados for
coal on 18 May, and, on the 24th, anchored off Jupiter Inlet,
Fla., reporting ready for battle. Altogether, Oregon had sailed
over 14,000 miles since leaving San Francisco 66 days earlier.
On one hand the feat had demonstrated the many capabilities of a
heavy battleship in all conditions of wind and sea. On the other
it swept away all opposition for the construction of the Panama
Canal, for it was then made clear that the country could not
afford to take two months to send warships from one coast to the
other each time an emergency arose.
On 26 May 1898, Oregon proceeded to the Navy Base at Key West,
joined Admiral Sampson's fleet two days later, and on 1 June
arrived off Santiago, Cuba, to shell military installations and
to help in the destruction of Admiral Cervera's fleet on 3 July.
Oregon then went to the New York Navy Yard for a refit, and in
October sailed for the Asiatic station.
She arrived at Manila on 18 March 1899 and remained in the area
until February 1900. In cooperating with the Army
during the Philippine insurrection, the battleship performed
blockade duty in Manila Bay and off Lingayen Gulf, served as a
station ship, and aided in the capture of Vigan.
Departing Cavite 13 February 1900, Oregon cruised in Japanese
waters until May when she went to Hong Kong. Under orders then
to proceed to Taku on account of the Boxer Rebellion, she
departed 23 June 1900 for that northern port; and, on the 28th,
while steaming through the Straits of Pechili, she grounded on
an uncharted rock. Suffering some damage and taking on water,
the battleship was in a precarious situation for a week. On 5
July Oregon refloated and the following day was towed to Hope
Sound for temporary repair. Arriving Kure, Japan, on 17 July,
she was placed in dry dock at the naval station there for final
repairs.
On 29 August 1900 the battleship departed again for the coast of
China and cruised off the Yangtze River and served as station
ship at Woosung. On 5 May 1901 she got underway for the United
States. Sailing via Yokohama and Honolulu, she arrived at San
Francisco 12 June and entered Puget Sound Navy Yard on 6 July
for overhaul.
Remaining in the Puget Sound area for well over a year, it was
not until 18 March 1903 that Oregon returned to Asiatic waters,
and arrived in Hong Kong on that day. Visiting various Chinese,
Japanese, and Philippine ports, the battleship remained in the
Far East until returning to the West Coast in February 1906. She
decommissioned at the Puget Sound Navy Yard 27 April 1906.
Oregon recommissioned 29 August 1911, but remained in reserve
until October, when she sailed to San Diego. The following years
were ones of relative inactivity for the aging veteran, as she
operated out of West Coast ports. On 9 April 1913 she was placed
in ordinary at Bremerton, Wash., and on 16 September 1914 went
into a reserve status, although she remained in commission. On 2
January 1915 she was again in full commission and sailed to San
Francisco for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
From
11 February 1916 to 7 April 1917 she was placed in commission in
reserve, this time at San Francisco. Returned to full commission
again on the latter date, Oregon remained first on the west
coast, then acted as one of the escorts for transports of the
Siberian Expedition. With World War I over, on 12 June 1919 she
decommissioned at Bremerton. From 21 August to 4 October of that
year she recommissioned briefly and was the reviewing ship for
President Woodrow Wilson during the arrival of the Pacific Fleet
at Seattle.
With the adoption of ship classification symbols on 17 July
1920, Oregon was redesignated BB-3. In 1921 a movement was begun
to preserve the battleship as an object of historic and
sentimental interest, and to lay her up permanently at some port
in Oregon.
In accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty, Oregon
was rendered incapable of further warlike service on 4 January
1924, and was retained on the Navy List as a naval relic with a
classification of "unclassified." In June 1925 she was loaned to
the State of Oregon, restored, and moored at Portland as a
floating monument and museum, to be visited by thousands in the
ensuing years.
On 17 February 1941, when identifying numbers were assigned to
unclassified vessels, Oregon was redesignated IX- 22. With the
outbreak of World War II, it was deemed that the scrap value of
the old veteran was vital and necessary to the war effort of the
nation. Accordingly, she was struck from the Navy List on 2
November 1942 and sold on 7 December. Towed to Kalima, Wash.,
the following March for dismantling, the Navy requested that the
scrapping process be halted when progress reached the main deck
and after the ship's interior had been cleared out. She was
returned to the Navy to be used as a storage hulk or breakwater
in connection with the reconquest of Guam, and by July 1944 she
had been loaded with dynamite and other types of ammunition and
towed to that island.
The hulk of the old battleship remained at Guam for several
years; during a typhoon on 14-15 November 1948, she broke her
moorings and drifted to sea. Finally, on 8 December, the old
warrior was located by search planes some 500 miles southeast of
Guam and towed back. She was sold on 15 March 1956 to the Massey
Supply Corp.; resold to the Iwai Sanggo Co.; towed to Kawasaki,
Japan; and scrapped.
-USN-
Updated: 18 May 2000
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