USS OREGON (battleship #3, BB-3, later IX-22)
1896-1956

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The USS Oregon was authorized in 1890, as one of a class of three ships to be the US Navy's first 'real' battleships. Battleship #3 was also the first major US steel warship built on the West Coast, and the first US battleship to serve in the Pacific. She was laid down November 19, 1891, by Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California. She was launched October 26, 1893 and commissioned July 15, 1896. Intended for coastal operations, Oregon and her two sisters suffered from low freeboard that hampered their ability to operate in heavy seas. They also rolled badly until bilge keels were added, but they carried heavier armor and larger guns that contemporary foreign ships. When the US Navy adopted the modern ship designation system, Oregon became BB-3.

She served with distinction in the Spanish-American War, racing around South America to reach Cuba. Oregon sailed over 14,000 miles in 66 days at sea. The feat demonstrated the many capabilities of a heavy battleship, in all conditions of wind and sea, encouraging Congress to build more of the type. It also swept away all opposition for the construction of the Panama Canal, for it was clear that the country could not afford to take two months to send warships from one coast to the other in time of war.

USS Oregon played a prominent part in the Battle of Santiago. After the war she served in Asian waters, supporting US troops during the Philippine Insurrection and the Boxer Rebellion. She ran aground in 1900, and was drydocked and repaired in Kure, Japan. Her funnels were raised the same year. She served in the Pacific until 1906, when she went into reserve. She was in and out of commission several times until 1917, when she was reactivated for the US involvement in WWI. During the period from 1908 to 1911, she received many modifications, including the fitting of cage masts, the removal of torpedo tubes, the replacement of her 4 x 6" guns with 12 x 3" guns. 8 of these 3" guns were removed in 1918. In 1919, she went into reserve for the last time.

In 1922 she was rendered incapable of further military service, and in 1925 she was permanently loaned to the state of Oregon, where she was restored and preserved as a museum. Her designation was changed to "Unclassified Miscellaneous Auxiliary (no number)" at this time, and in January 1941 she was given the number IX-22.

With the outbreak of World War II, the Governor of Oregon, in an ill-advised grandstanding effort, offered the ship back to the Navy to replace vessels damaged at Pearl Harbor. He proposed that Oregon be used as a convoy escort or for coast defense. The Navy accepted the ship back, for though her fighting value was non-existent, it was deemed that the scrap value of the old ship was a significant contribution to the war effort. President Roosevelt was asked to step in and save her from this fate, but in light of the war effort and perceived steel shortage he chose to preserve only one Spanish-American War vessel. He decided on the cruiser Olympia, flagship at Manila Bay. Oregon's tthousands of tons of high-quality steel could be cut up and melted down, so this historic vessel, once preserved for posterity, was lost. She was struck from the Navy List on November 2 , 1942 and sold on December 7, for the sum of $35,000. One of her masts, her funnels, and other relics of the ship were removed and retained for use in a memorial park. 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. Moored as far away from a populated area as possible, the ship was unloaded at the rate of 15 tons a night, to avoid the dangers of handling explosives in the heat of the day. After she was emptied, it was determined that she was not needed as a breakwater after all, so the hulk was left empty to quietly swing at her mooring.

The hulk of the old battleship remained at Guam for several years; during a typhoon on November 14-15, 1948, she broke her moorings and drifted to sea. Finally, on December 8, the ship was located by search planes some 500 miles southeast of Guam and towed back. In the mid 1950's, a group tried to generate interest in returning the ship to the USA for restoration, but there was nothing left but a badly rusts, gutted hull, which was far beyond the point of restoration. She was sold on March 15, 1956, to the Massey Supply Corp. for $208,000, and resold to the Iwai Sanggo Co. of Japan. She was towed to Kawasaki, Japan, and scrapped, an ironic end for a museum ship sacrificed to help in the war effort against Japan..

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