USS Castine (PG-6)
USS Castine
| |
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | Castine |
Namesake | Castine, Maine |
Builder | Bath Iron Works |
Launched | 11 May 1892 |
Sponsored by | Ms. M. Hichborn |
Commissioned | 22 October 1894 |
Decommissioned | 8 October 1901 |
Recommissioned | 12 November 1903 |
Decommissioned | 23 September 1905 |
Recommissioned | 4 October 1908 |
Decommissioned | 28 August 1919 |
Fate |
|
General characteristics | |
Type | Gunboat |
Displacement | 1,177 long tons (1,196 t) |
Length | 204 ft (62 m) |
Beam | 32 ft 1 in (9.78 m) |
Draft | 12 ft (3.7 m) |
Complement | 154 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
|
USS Castine (PG-6) was a gunboat of the United States Navy in commission from 1894 to 1901, from 1903 to 1905, and from 1908 to 1919. The first U.S. Navy ship named for Castine, Maine, she saw service during the Spanish–American War, the Philippine–American War, and World War I.
Construction and commissioning
Castine was
Service history
Pre-Spanish American War
Assigned to the
Spanish–American War
As American relations with Spain deteriorated just prior to the April 1898 outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Castine was called north in March 1898 to take her place on the blockade surrounding Cuba. She served in the force which accompanied the United States Army's troop transports to Cuba, and remained in the Caribbean through the close of the war in August 1898.
Pre-World War I
In December 1898, Castine sailed from
Castine remained at Philadelphia until recommissioning on 12 November 1903. Upon recommissioning, she saw duty in the South Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, and Caribbean.
On 20 April 1904, Captain Edward John Dorn took command of the ship.[1]
On 23 September 1905, she was decommissioned at
Castine remained at Portsmouth Navy Yard until 4 October 1908, when she recommissioned to serve as a
.Near-loss in Santo Domingo harbor, 29 August 1916
Castine was at anchor in the harbor of Santo Domingo along with the armored cruiser Memphis on 29 August 1916 when, shortly after 12:00, an unexpected heavy swell began to develop and the ships began to roll heavily. Castine and Memphis both made preparations to leave the harbor and began to raise steam; Memphis expected to be able to get underway at about 16:35, with the smaller Castine able to do so earlier.
Conditions in the harbor had deteriorated badly by 15:45, when the ships sighted an approaching 75 ft (23 m) wave of yellow water stretching along the entire horizon. By 16:00, the wave was closer, had turned ochre in color, and had reached about 100 ft (30 m) in height; at the same time, the ships began to roll very heavily, with Memphis rolling 45°. Around 16:40, the giant wave the ships had seen approaching over the past hour arrived; it turned out to be a set of three waves of up to 70 ft (21 m) in height striking in rapid succession. Castine had gotten underway under minimal power and managed to put to sea through the huge waves, although she suffered damage and nearly capsized. Memphis, still immobile, was battered into a complete wreck, and a group of her sailors returning from shore leave in a motor launch were caught in the harbor by the waves and swamped; Memphis suffered 40 killed and 204 badly injured.[3]
In his 1966 account of the incident, The Wreck of the Memphis,
A likely source for such large, wind-generated waves in Santo Domingo Harbor on 29 August 1916 does exist, in that three
World War I
The
Decommissioning and disposal
Castine was
Wreck
The wreck of Castine was identified by Thales Geosolutions in 2001 as a modern ship in 105 feet (32 meters) of sea water.[11] Her wreck was documented further in May 2005 when a team from the United States Minerals Management Service (MMS) was identifying sonar targets.[10] The site was re-examined by the MMS to evaluate damage following August 2005's Hurricane Katrina; the team found that even though Castine's wreck was within 30 miles of the eye, very little damage occurred.[10] In March 2009, the site was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places.[10]
References
- ^ "Castine (PG 6)". navsource.org. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
- ^ "Records of the T. A. Scott co". mysticseaport.org. 20 May 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
- ^ For a description of the loss of Memphis, see Smith, pp. 67–70.
- ^ Beach, The Wreck of the Memphis.
- ISBN 0-8317-0302-4, p. 149, for another citation of the 100-foot tsunami explanation.
- ^ a b For a discussion of the lack of evidence for a tsunami and the more compelling evidence for freak wind-generated waves having wrecked Memphis, see Smith, pp. 68–69.
- ^ "The Loss of the USS Memphis on 29 August 1916 – Was a Tsunami Responsible? Analysis of a Naval Disaster" by Dr. George Pararas-Carayannis
- ^ 4 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 520 (1935–1936) Annotations of Opinions of the Attorney General of the United States
- ^ "The Navy Cross to Members of the US Navy World War I". Archived from the original on 3 August 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f Ball, DA (2009). "The Minerals Management Service's Seafloor Monitoring Program". In: Pollock NW, ed. Diving for Science 2009. Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences 28th Symposium. Dauphin Island, AL: AAUS. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Enright, Jeffrey M; Gearhart II, Robert; Jones, Doug; Enright, Jenna (2006). "Study to Conduct National Register of Historic Places Evaluations of Submerged Sites on the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf" (PDF). Minerals Management Service Technical Report. MMS 2006-036. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 February 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
Further reading
- Beach, Edward L., Jr. The Wreck of the Memphis. New York, New York: Holt, Rinear, and Wiston, 1966. Naval Institute Press Classics of Naval Literature 1998 re-print ISBN 1-55750-070-3
- Eger, Christopher L. (March 2021). "Hudson Fulton Celebration, Part II". Warship International. LVIII (1): 58–81. ISSN 0043-0374.
- Jones D. Too Much Top for Its Bottom: The h=Historical and Archaeological Identification of the USS Castine and the Significance of U.S. Gunboats in the Early Steel Navy. Masters Thesis. Department of History, East Carolina University. December 2007; 162 pp.
- Smith, Craig B. Extreme Waves. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 2006. ISBN 0-309-10062-3.
Other sources
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.