The Oregon Files is a series of novels written by author Clive Cussler and several co-authors. Craig Dirgo was a co-writer for the first two titles, Jack Du Brul was a co-writer for the next seven titles, Boyd Morrison took over as co-writer starting with book 10, and Mike Maden writes the 16th and 17th book after Clive's passing.
The books follow the mysterious "Corporation" and its leader Juan Cabrillo. The title of the series, "Oregon Files", comes from the name of the corporation's ship, the Oregon. The ship's name is based on the former name of the TS Empire State VI, which originally had the name SS Oregon before entering into government service as a training ship for the United States Maritime Service.
The crew of the Oregon first appeared in Flood Tide. The main Oregon Files series consists of:
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 the Oregon 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 and later Type 53-65 torpedoes, though Cabrillo has stated he would have preferred American Mk48 ADCAP), 20 mm multibarrel Gatling-style rotary cannons (probably M61 Vulcans) mounted behind steel plates on its hull, and an array of 7.62 mm caliber M60 machine guns concealed in dummy oil barrels welded onto her deck (also known as their boarder repellents) that are all remotely operated with the most sophisticated fire-control systems. As well as these, the Oregon carries Russian-built cruise missiles of an unspecified type, a 40 mm Bofors autocannon (later replaced by a Metal Storm gun system), and at least one Rheinmetall 120 mm gun of a similar type to that of the M1A1 Abrams tank. Most novels talk about the 120 mm 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".
(In alphabetical order)
(In alphabetical order)
China, Stanley Ho, Ling Po, Marcus Friday, Winston Spencer
Aleimain Al-Khalifa, Halifax Hickman
Anton Savich, Shere Singh
Congolese Army of Revolution, Daniel Singer
Responsivists, Zelimir Kovac, Thom Severance, Adam Jenner (a.k.a. Lydell Cooper, Ernst Kessler)
Unnamed terrorist leader (alias Suleiman Al-Jama)
China, Argentina, Argentinian 9th Brigade, Phillipe Espinoza, Jorge Espinoza, Raul Jiminez
John Smith (a.k.a. Abdul Mohammed), Gunawan Bahar, Al-Qaeda of the East, a quantum computer
Pytor Kenin
Admiral Dayana Ruiz, The Doctor (a.k.a. Lawrence Kensit)
Sergey Golov
Salvador Locsin
Zachariah Tate
April Jin, Angus Polk and Lu Yang
The Pipeline
Heather Hightower, Jean-Paul Salan, Kalid bin Salman