2-547-042 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The 'Oregon's' race for Cuba', 1898. As tensions grew between the United States and Spain after the sinking of the battleship USS 'Maine' in Havana harbour, Cuba, the USS 'Oregon' was ordered to sail from San Francisco around the tip of South America to re-deploy in the Atlantic. After a 66 day, 14,000 mile voyage that included a stormy and potentially deadly passage through the Straits of Magellan she arrived off Florida on 24 May 1898, by which time the Spanish-American War had begun. On 3 July the 'Oregon' participated in the Battle of Santiago, in which the Spanish Caribbean Squadron was destroyed. A print from Our Country in War and Relations with All Nations, by Murat Halstead, The United Subscription Book Publishers of America, 1898.