Name/Title
SNS Oquendo [Coin]Description
Heat damaged five Pesetas silver Spanish coin, measuring 1.5 inches in diameter, taken from the Spanish armored cruiser Almirante Oquendo while it was sinking following the American victory at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.
Housed inside a glass case, measuring 4 by 3 inches, with handwritten and signed by General Cyrus Sugg Radford (1868-1951):
“Taken from Spanish Warship ‘Oquendo’ after Battle of July 3rd, 1898, by Cyrus S. Radford Lieutenant of Marines U.S.S. Texas.”Context
“We put a regular torrent of shells into the Vizcaya. The Brooklyn was abeam of her, about two miles outside; the Oregon was nearly abeam, half a mile further in shore; and the Texas was on the starboard quarter of the Oregon and about a mile astern of her. All three were steering parallel courses to the westward. We were all firing at her, but her crew, with a most striking and persistent tenacity, remained by their guns, until she, too, had to head for the beach, where she was hard and fast at 11:05. At 11:30, a terrific explosion took place on board, tearing a hole in her large enough for a furniture van to go through with the greatest of ease.”
- Chaplain Harry Jones, The Battle of Santiago, onboard the USS Texas