USS Oregon was laid down in San Francisco in 1891, immediately in the wake of the publication of the first volume of Alfred Thayer Mahan's Influence of Seapower on History. USS Oregon was designed primarily for coastal defense work, but carried a heavy main armament, displacing 11,000 tons, carried 4 13" and 8 8" guns, and could make 16 knots. USS Oregon represented a start, and the US Navy would, with the help of Mahan, follow through with the creation of the world's most powerful navies.  

USS Oregon was the third ship of the Indiana class, the first class of true battleships constructed by the United States Navy.  She was commissioned in 1896 and posted to the Pacific.

On February 15, 1898, in the context of increasing tensions between Spain and the United States over Spanish control of Cuba, the armored cruiser Maine blew up in Havana. 

The USS Oregon run from the Pacific to the Atlantic at the outbreak of hostilities was a highlight of the conflict.  The captain of Oregon opted to take the Straits of Magellan to save time, which put the battleship in grave danger during a gale. Nevertheless, Oregon survived and arrived in the Cuba theater of operations on May 24. USS Oregon took part in the destruction of the Spanish Fleet at Santiago, Cuba, and is credited for actions against the Spanish vessels Infata, Maria, Teresa, Viscaya, Almirante, Oquendo, Pluton, and Furor in that engagement.  She was called a "McKinley's bulldog" at the battle of Santiago, where the name stuck. She appeared as a tough dog, speeding into a fight, and the white wake off her bow was said to appear as a "bone" clenched in her teeth.

The experience of Oregon was critical in building support for the construction of the Panama Canal, as the existence of a canal would have cut three weeks off Oregon's travel time. Consequently, the United States fomented a rebellion in Colombia that led to the independence of Panama, and purchased French equipment and property in what came to be known as the Canal Zone.

Oregon was redeployed to the Pacific after the war, and spent considerable time in East Asia, including duty on station during the Boxer Rebellion. An uncharted rock nearly sent Oregon to the bottom in 1900. In 1906, Oregon decommissioned.  Oregon went from construction and commissioning to decommissioning and obsolescence in a mere ten years. Oregon was refit and recommissioned in 1911, decommissioned again in 1914, and commissioned/decommissioned several more time before 1920. In 1923, Oregon was demilitarized and loaned to the state of Oregon as a floating museum. She was moored for what was expected to be a permanent stay in Portland, Oregon. However, World War II intervened, and the USN decided that Oregon was more useful as scrap metal than as a war monument.

Oddly, the Navy determined that it didn't actually need the scrap, and the process was halted after Oregon's guns and superstructure had been removed. The hulk was reclassified and used as a munitions ship in the Pacific campaign. Moored in Guam after the war, her hulk broke free during a storm and floated about the Pacific for a month in 1948. In 1956 the hulk was sold to a Japanese scrapyard, and Oregon's story ended.

Oregon's foremast survives today in Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland, Oregon. In 1992, an author convinced a young woman that the entire battleship was actually buried beneath the Park, with only the mast above ground.

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Model Ship Master is the first and the only modeler who build plank-on-frame warships.  Solid hull models are not correct to start with and WILL crack sooner or later.  Please note the fabulous details.  Many builders wouldn't want to show their models from different angles and closed-up because of lack of details.    This model is all wood and metal, featuring light "rust" appearance that only true master painters can achieve.

 41" L x 10"W x 23" T    $1,100        S & H is $130     
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