The
USS Oregon was built in San Francisco and launched in 1893. I have delayed this post for a long time because I intended to go down to Tom McCall Waterfront Park here in Portland and take a photo of the mast, which is on display there as a memorial. Somehow I have never gotten around to doing it, but there's a perfectly good photo on Wikipedia anyway.
Here' s the card.
And here's the Wikipedia photo of the mast as it looks today.
The card was sent by D.A. Westcott of Victoria, B.C. to Miss Kate Goff of Waterford, Pennsylvania. The choice of a battleship postcard seems to be intentional. Here's the back of the card with its wonderful message.
Victoria, B.C. Canada
Kate - Take care of yourself. Don't let any body walk on you.
D.A. Westcott
May 23, 1908.
It looks like they buried the battleship in the park.
ReplyDeleteThe mast has kind of a space age look.
ReplyDeleteRob may actually be right: The waterfront park is infill on what used to be docks and the natural riverbank, which is now defined by a concrete flood wall, the height of which correlates pretty closely to the deck level of that ship- might have been easier to bury the thing than dismantle it.
ReplyDeleteRob, now that you've said this I will never look at it in the same way. I love the idea of an underground ship museum...
ReplyDeleteThat is a nice thought for the day : Don't let anybody walk on you. Mind you, Amy walks on me all the time.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that's just the mast of the ship!
ReplyDeleteI heard an anecdote once that the whole vessel was supposed to be preserved as a monument at some point, but it didn't happen for whatever reason.