It may be fairly assumed that if Admiral Cervera-one of the ablest men of his profession-had been left to his own devices, the Spanish fleet under his command would not have attempted to escape from Santiago harbor on the 3d of July. Following is a list of the vessels engaged in the battle of Santiago with their batteries.

5

5

2

-6

.8 inch rifles.

-4.7

-6 pounders.

-I

Maxim machine guns.

12 pd'r rapid-fire Maxim Nordenfeldt guns. -6

Maxim Automatic.

2—12 pd'r. rapid-fire Maxim Nordenfeldt guns.

*These guns were not on board-they were replaced by guns supposed to be six-inch

!

CHAPTER VIII.

THE VOYAGE OF THE OREGON.

BY

LIEUT. W. H. ALLEN, U. S. N.

TH

HE U. S. S. Oregon, when designed and built, was classed as a coast-line battleship. It was not intended that she should make long trips at sea, but her duty was to defend the coast against any vessels that might be sent to devastate it. The ship is nominally of 10,288 tons displacement, but, when equipped for a long cruise, displaces nearly 12,000 tons. She was designed for 15 knots, but on her official trial developed a speed of 16.7 knots, under forced draft, using both her main and auxiliary boilers. Her crew consists ordinarily of thirty officers and 438 men, and her armament is the heaviest carried by any vessel of the same displacement. Foreign experts doubted the ability of this class of ships to keep at sea in rough weather.

The only extended trip of the Oregon previous to March, 1898, had been from San Francisco to Acapulco, Mexico, a distance of about eighteen hundred miles. This voyage was made at various speeds to determine the coal consumption. At that time this was considered a long distance for a battleship to make without a stop. Subsequently, on a trip from San Francisco to Puget Sound, during a violent wind, she demonstrated her ability to weather any gale if properly handled.

In order to make the ship more steady at sea, bilge keels were built on her bottom. This was done in the dry dock at Bremerton, Washington.

As the Oregon was being hauled out of the dry dock at Bremerton on the morning of February 16, 1898, news of the blowing up of the Maine in the harbor of Havana was re