Oregon Files

Juan Cabrillo is Chairman of the “Corporation”, a special US Government-sponsored group that operates out of a ship called the Oregon; a marvel of scientific research equipment bristling with state-of-the-art weaponry – but disguised as a heap of junk.

Cabrillo and his crew of mercenaries with a conscience are able to cross the high seas in their ‘rusting’ tub unmolested, seeking out those beyond the arms of the law and dealing out justice to any who would plot chaos on a global scale.

The Oregon is a high tech ship owned by a private secret service organization called ‘the Corporation’. It is disguised as a rusty old tramp steamer. It mounts five cranes – three fore, two aft – only two of which are operational, one each fore and aft. To add to its appearance of authenticity, this disguise is highly detailed. This includes a fake mess hall, and a captain’s cabin specially designed to be utterly repulsive, with features including specially designed chemicals to keep people away, a dysfunctional toilet, and depressing paintings of clowns on black velvet. In reality it is an extraordinarily sophisticated intelligence-gathering vessel with luxury facilities and top of the line technical capabilities. It is equipped with a moon pool for launching two minisubs, an olympic swimming pool (in one of its ballast tanks), state-of-the-art medical facilities, and powered by a pair of revolutionary magnetohydrodynamic drives. It also uses an array of underwater vectored-thrusters to give it unparalleled maneuverability for a ship of its size – Dark Watch gives its dimensions as 560 feet long, with a 75-foot beam and a gross weight of 11,585 tons.

The Oregon is also equipped with a suite of armaments that rivals most military capital ships, including: French-built Exocet anti-ship missiles, two torpedo tubes below the waterline(firing Russian-made TEST-71 torpedoes according to Plague Ship, though Cabrillo has stated he would have preferred American Mk48 ADCAP), 20mm multibarrel Gatling guns mounted behind steel plates on its hull, an array of .30-caliber machine guns concealed in dummy oil barrels on her deck, as well as Russian-built cruise missiles of an unspecified type, a 40mm Bofors autocannon, and at least one 120mm cannon of a similar type to that of the M1A1 Abrams tank. Most novels talk about the 120mm in the singular, however Dark Watch states that it has two – one on each side of the hull. The ship’s control center, located deep within its hull, is said to have the feel of the starship Enterprise, including a large, central command chair in which Cabrillo sits when on the bridge, which is colloquially referred to as “The Kirk Chair”.