Young Peoples History of the War with Spain | Page 7

on the island, and was off again to sea.
[Illustration: U.S. Battleship "Oregon."]
There was some reason to think that the Spanish fleet might catch our
great battleship Oregon, coming as fast as it could to the Eastern Coast.
I must take time to tell you about the Oregon. Shortly before the war
began, the Oregon was in the Pacific Ocean; but when she received a
message to come to an Atlantic port, to be ready for war with Spain,
she took coal at San Francisco and started--March 19th--on her long
voyage. She went south through the Pacific Ocean, east through the
Strait of Magellan, and then turned northward into the Atlantic Ocean.
Then the closest watch was kept for the enemy; the guns were always
ready, the lights were covered every night. Though Captain Clark did
not know that war had really begun before that time, still he knew that
there was danger. On May 24th the Oregon arrived at a port in Florida,
having come 14,000 miles, through all kinds of weather, in two months'
time, without breaking anything about the ship. So the Spaniards did
not catch the Oregon, but later in the year she helped to catch them.
[Illustration: Captain Charles E. Clark.]
When the Oregon arrived at. Jupiter Inlet, Florida, she was as able to
fight or to run as on the day she was put into commission. When she
left San Francisco she had nine hundred tons of coal on board. During
the voyage she consumed almost four thousand tons. Callao was the
first port where the Oregon stopped. From there she ran down the
Pacific coast, and after passing through the straits sailed up the eastern
coast of South America to Rio Janeiro, where she was notified by the
American consul that the United States and Spain were really at war.
There were now two other American warships at Rio. The gunboat
Marietta had joined the Oregon near the straits, and the Buffalo, which
the United States had bought from Brazil, was waiting for them at Rio.
I will let Captain Clark tell you the story of the remainder of the voyage,

in his own way:
"Several long cablegrams were exchanged between the Government
and myself. Nothing whatever in the way of instructions was issued
that would hamper me or in any way abridge my responsibility for
bringing the Oregon home. We sailed from Rio on May 4. I decided,
when we had been at sea a little while, to leave the Buffalo and the
Marietta to shift for themselves. They were so slow that I feared the
Oregon might be late in arriving where she was most needed. I left
these ships off Cape Frio, one hundred miles above Rio, after signaling
them, 'Come to Bahia, or run ashore if attacked by overwhelming
force.' I reached Bahia on the 8th, but we were told to 'Come on.' We
sailed next morning, and this run to Barbadoes was the most thrilling of
the entire voyage. We steamed absolutely without a light.
"Indeed, the entire trip from Sandy Point to Jupiter Inlet was a lightless
voyage. In pitchlike darkness we drove along at our highest
speed--seeing lights many times, but always avoiding the ships that
bore them. We were out of court. We had no right of way without a
light. Even if we met a vessel on our port, we gave way.
"Night and day the men stood at the guns. Not for a single moment was
vigilance relaxed. The strain on the men was terrible. For four days at a
time hammocks were never strung. Watch and watch about, the men
lay beside the guns, sound asleep, while the men on duty stood silently
above them. All the lookouts were doubled and changed with unusual
frequency.
"Barbadoes was reached just before daylight, May 18, and after rushing
two hundred and fifty tons of coal aboard, we sailed the same evening.
Still the orders read, 'Come on.' From our consul I learned that
Cervera's fleet was at Martinique, just to the north of us. This fleet had
been extolled for speed and fighting qualities. I am not a rash man. I
was not looking for that fleet. The situation seemed critical. Sailing just
before dark, I headed northwest, apparently into the heart of the
Caribbean Sea. This information, I have no doubt, was promptly
communicated to Admiral Cervera. But as soon as the darkness of a
moonless night had thoroughly set in, I changed the course to due south;

and ran below Barbadoes and thence far to the eastward before I took
the Oregon to the northward. We thus passed far to sea east of
Martinique, and eventually turned into the north Atlantic beyond St.
Thomas. I carefully avoided the Windward Channel and the shallow