USS Yorktown (PG-1)

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USS Yorktown, c. 1890–1901
USS Yorktown, c. 1890–1901
History
United States
NameYorktown
NamesakeBattle of Yorktown
Awarded1885
BuilderWilliam Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia
Laid down14 May 1887
Launched28 April 1888
Completed19 March 1889[1]
Commissioned23 April 1889
Decommissioned8 December 1897
Recommissioned17 November 1898
Decommissioned17 June 1903
Recommissioned1 October 1906
Decommissioned15 July 1912
Recommissioned1 April 1913
Decommissioned12 June 1919
FateSold, 30 September 1921[2]
General characteristics
Class and typeYorktown-class gunboat
Displacement
  • 1,710 long tons (1,740 t)[3]
  • 1,910 long tons (1,940 t) (fully loaded)
Length
Beam36 ft (11 m)[3]
Draft14 ft (4.3 m)[3]
Propulsion
Sail plan
three-masted schooner rig with a total sail area of 6,300 sq ft (590 m2)[5]
Speed16 knots (30 km/h)[3]
Endurance3,443 nautical miles @ 10 knots (6,376 km @ 19 km/h)[3]
Complement191 officers and enlisted
Armament
Armor

USS Yorktown was

her class of steel-hulled, twin-screw gunboats in the United States Navy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the second U.S. Navy ship named in honor of the American Revolutionary War's Battle of Yorktown
.

Yorktown was

masts. The ship's main battery
consisted of six 6-inch (15.2 cm) guns and was augmented by an assortment of smaller-caliber guns.

At launch, Yorktown joined the

Asiatic Station before returning to the United States in 1898. Yorktown was out of commission during the Spanish–American War, but took part in actions in the Philippine–American War and the Boxer Rebellion
in 1899 and 1900, respectively, after she had been recommissioned.

After three years out of commission from 1903 to 1906, Yorktown hosted the

decommissioned for the final time in June 1919, and was assigned the hull number PG-1 the following year. She was sold in 1921 to an Oakland, California firm and broken up
that same year.

Design and construction

Yorktown (right) and Vesuvius being launched in Philadelphia, 28 April 1888

The Yorktown class gunboats—unofficially considered third-class cruisers—were the product of a United States Navy design attempt to produce compact ships with good seakeeping abilities and, yet, able to carry a heavy battery. Yorktown was authorized in the 1886 fiscal year, and the contract for her construction was awarded to the William Cramp & Sons shipyard of Philadelphia. The hull for Yorktown was designed by the Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair while the mechanical design was left to the Cramp yard.[4] Yorktown's keel was laid on 14 May 1887.[3]

The ship was

Congressmen, the Secretary of the Navy William Collins Whitney, and the governors of six states attended the dual ceremony, many arriving from Washington, D.C., via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's passenger steamer SS Columbia.[5] By 19 March 1889, Cramp had completed Yorktown and was prepared to turn her over to the Navy.[1]

Layout

As built, Yorktown was 244 feet 5 inches (74.50 m) in

draft of 14 feet (4 m),[3] which was expected to give her the ability to escape from larger ships into shallow water.[5] At the waterline was a turtleback deck of ⅜-inch (9.5 mm) steel that formed a watertight seal over the lower spaces. The deck had a crown at the level of the waterline and curved downwards to 3 feet (0.91 m) below the waterline at the sides of the ship. Below this armored deck were twelve compartments separated by watertight bulkheads; the spaces above were equipped with watertight doors intended to be closed during battle.[5]

Above the armored deck, Yorktown had

steering wheel, a telegraph, and speaking tubes; it was protected by 2 inches (51 mm) of steel armor plate.[5]

Propulsion

Yorktown was powered by two

screw propellers. The cylinders of each engine were 22, 31, and 51 inches (56, 79, and 130 cm) in diameter and had a 30-inch (76 cm) stroke.[5] Each engine was rated at 3,400 indicated horsepower (2,500 kW) and together were designed to move the ship at 16 knots (30 km/h),[5] though the ship exceeded that in her trials.[4]

The engines, situated in separate watertight compartments, were each fed by a pair of coal-fired boilers. Each boiler was horizontally mounted and was 9 feet 6 inches (2.90 m) in diameter and 17 feet 6 inches (5.33 m) in length with a total grate area of 220 square inches (1,400 cm2). Yorktown's coal bunkers could carry up to 400 long tons (410 t) of the fuel, and were shielded from "shot and shell". At a near top-speed of 16 knots, the ship could cover 2,800 nautical miles (5,200 km) in 6½ days; at the more economical speed of 8 knots (15 km/h) she could cruiser 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km) over 62 days.[5]

To supplement her steam power plant, Yorktown was built with three

sail area of 6,300 square feet (590 m2). The steam and sail combination was expected to allow Yorktown to remain at sea for months at a time during wartime.[5]

Armament

Yorktown's main battery consisted of six

armor-piercing projectiles with a propellant charge weighing 18.8 pounds (8.5 kg) at 1,950 feet per second (590 m/s). At an elevation of 30.2°, the guns had a range of 18,000 yards (16,000 m).[6] Each gun was shielded with steel plating 3 inches (76 mm) thick.[5]

Yorktown's secondary battery consisted of two

1-pounder (37 mm (1.46 in)) guns.[3] All were based on designs of the French arms company Hotchkiss.[5] According to a 1902 Bureau of Ordnance publication, an armor-piercing round fired from a 6-pounder gun could penetrate 2 inches (51 mm) of armor at a distance of 1,000 yards (910 m).[7]

1889–1897

Yorktown participated in the ceremonies centered on the repatriation of the remains of John Ericsson to his native Sweden in August 1890.

The ship was

League Island (Philadelphia) Navy Yard on 23 April 1889 under the command of Commander French E. Chadwick.[2]
After Yorktown conducted her final sea trials, she was assigned to the "
New York Navy Yard on 1 July for repairs that lasted until 8 August. Upon the completion of these alterations, Yorktown took part in the ceremonies marking the embarkation of the remains of the noted inventor, John Ericsson—of Monitor fame—for transportation back to his native Sweden for burial.[2]

Yorktown next again operated in the Squadron of Evolution off the eastern seaboard and into the

Secretary of the Navy's report for the fiscal year 1891 noted that "useful experience" had been gained by the Squadron of Evolution in the training of commanding, navigating, and watch officers in skillfully and safely maneuvering vessels in formation and in restricted waters. In addition, engineers were trained in regulating and maintaining economical coal consumption.[2]

Baltimore crisis

On 8 October 1891, Yorktown, under the command of Commander

Baltimore Crisis.[2]

During the

Itata Incident had ended, the American cruiser Baltimore put in at Valparaíso. On 16 October, a group of sailors from Baltimore ashore on liberty were attacked by Congressionalists, still angry at the Itata affair.[11] Two of Baltimore's sailors were killed and eighteen wounded; thirty-six other American sailors were arrested by the local authorities. Tensions ran high in both Chile and the United States.[2]

Yorktown, a part of the United States' response, departed Charlotte Amalie for Valparaíso on 17 October for a six-week, storm-tossed voyage around the South American continent via the

Straits of Magellan. Less than two weeks after Yorktown's 30 November arrival, Baltimore departed, leaving American interests in the hands of Evans and Yorktown. Over the ensuing weeks, Chile and the United States came close to war, but cooler heads prevailed. Locally, Evans' patience was "dangerously tested", but it held. One inflammatory incident occurred when Chilean torpedo boats bore down on Evans' ship, turning their helms hard over at the last possible instant to avoid a collision. On another occasion, a group of locals threw rocks at Evans and his gig as it lay at the foot of a jetty.[2]

After a month at Valparaíso, Yorktown took on refugees from the American, Spanish, and Italian legations in mid-January 1892. She got underway on the 19th and arrived at

Callao, Peru, on the 25th. While Yorktown lay anchored there, tension between the United States and Chile relaxed and the crisis abated, and the Chilean later government provided compensation for the families of the American sailors that were killed.[2]

Sealing patrol

Yorktown stood out of Callao on 4 March 1892, steamed northward via

Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California. The gunboat subsequently underwent repairs there until late in the following month. Having weathered one diplomatic storm and international incident, Evans and his command soon set sail on another mission that, if handled wrongly, could have caused ill-feeling with the British.[2]

That spring, Yorktown—along with two other naval vessels and a trio of

west coast of the United States, the gunboat and her crew "braced", in Evans' words, "at the prospect of doing something". As at Valparaíso, Evans faced the possibility of becoming involved in an international incident arising from possible confrontations with Canadian sealers. Operating under the protection of the British crown, the latter had taken particularly heavy catches. Many American vessels put to sea under the British flag in an attempt to evade prosecution by their own government. The British agreed to help put an end to the slaughter of seals and decided upon joint action with the United States in prosecuting the poachers. About 110 schooners, large and small, made up the sealing fleet, typically "armed" with double-barrelled shotguns for killing the animals and Winchester rifles for dealing with any humans who attempted to interfere. The fact that the great majority of seals killed had been female —still with young in many cases—almost doubled the toll of slain seals. As Evans noted: "the slaughter in the North Pacific was fearful".[2]

Arriving at Port Townsend, Washington, on 30 April, Yorktown put to sea on 13 May, arriving at Iliuliuk, Unalaska, one week later. Coaling there, the gunboat skirted the ice floes near the seal rookeries of the Pribilof Islands, reconnoitering the vicinity for sealers. Assisted by a revenue cutter, Yorktown guarded the passes to the Bering Sea. The crews of the patrolling American ships lacked fresh provisions but carried on in spite of the hardships imposed by both diet and climate. Fresh fish, however, proved abundant. Codfish was the staple with an occasional gourmet treat of salmon.[2]

Telescopic gunsight

Bradley Fiske
tested a successful telescopic gun sight on Yorktown in 1892.

Besides the patrols made during this deployment in northwestern waters, Yorktown conducted routine operations such as target practices. Among the officers assigned to the ship at that time was Lt.

Bradley Fiske, a young officer who had invented and constructed a practical telescopic gunsight. Fiske's sight had been tested in Baltimore and had favorably impressed that ship's officers—including her commander, Captain Winfeld S. Schley. Evans, however, had not taken a liking to Fiske's newfangled gadget but nevertheless consented to allow a second test on board Yorktown (the first one had failed miserably). On the afternoon of 22 September 1892, during scheduled target practice, Fiske's invention worked as designed and elicited praise from Evans. As Fiske himself later wrote in the United States Naval Institute's magazine Proceedings, modern naval gunnery had its birth not in the British Navy but in the American—off Unalaska on 22 September 1892, in Yorktown.[2]

Yorktown continued her task of patrolling until 21 September when she departed Unalaska for the Mare Island Navy Yard. From 11 to 24 October, the ship underwent repairs there before proceeding on to the east coast via Cape Horn. Yorktown eventually arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, on 24 February 1893.[2]

After repairs at the New York Navy Yard from 25 April to 26 July, Yorktown retraced her route south and sailed again around Cape Horn back into the Pacific. She then moved north to resume patrolling the Bering Sea. She protected seal rookeries into 1894 before returning to Mare Island for repairs which lasted into mid-September.[2]

On 24 September 1894, Yorktown sailed for the western Pacific and duty on the

Asiatic Station. Sailing via Honolulu, she reached Yokohama, Japan, on 8 December 1894 and spent the next three years, under the command of Commander Charles Stockton touching at the principal ports-of-call along the coasts of China and Japan. She departed Yokohama early in the autumn of 1897 and made port at Mare Island on 18 November 1897. Subsequently, laid up at Mare Island and decommissioned on 8 December, the gunboat remained inactive there through the Spanish–American War in 1898.[2]

1898–1903

Recommissioned on 17 November 1898, with Commander

Cavite Navy Yard, near Manila where patrolled to prevent gun-runners thought to be supplying guns and ammunition to the Insurrectos, Filipinos fighting for independence.[2]

At one point, rumors flew concerning possible German gun-running activities; and Yorktown patrolled off the entrance to Subic Bay and from thence to Lingayen to keep a lookout for the filibusters. She continued coastal patrol work over the next three years, cooperating with the Army, transporting and convoying troops, and patrolling wide areas of often badly charted waters. Upon occasion, Yorktown served as "mother ship" to smaller gunboats, providing officers and men to staff the smaller patrol craft. Ensigns William Harrison Standley and Harry E. Yarnell (both future admirals) and future naval historian and archivist Dudley Wright Knox were among the junior officers who served in Yorktown during this time.[2]

During the Philippine–American War, Yorktown stood in to Baler Bay, on the west coast of Luzon, on 11 April 1899, on a mission to relieve a Spanish garrison that had been under siege by Filipino troops for nine months. Lt. James C. Gillmore and a party of sailors in the ship's whaleboat provided a decoy, ostensibly taking soundings of a nearby river. Meanwhile, Standley and an enlisted man landed farther up the coast to reconnoiter. The next day, Gillmore and his boat crew drifted into a trap, running aground too far from the river's mouth and out of sight of Yorktown. Filipino troops, hidden in the jungle-covered banks, raked the boat with rifle fire. Two American sailors were killed; two were mortally wounded; and the remainder, including Gillmore, were slightly wounded. The survivors were taken prisoner until freed by U.S. Army troops. Standley completed his mission and, together with the enlisted signalman, made it back to the ship.[2]

U.S. Marines in China during the Boxer Rebellion; Marines from Yorktown participated in operations at Tientsin, June–July 1900.

In 1899, the situation in China worsened until it culminated in the Boxer Rebellion. The following spring, Yorktown was withdrawn from her patrol duties in the northern Philippines to provide assistance to the operations off the coast of North China. She departed Manila on 3 April 1900, bound for China; and, after she reached the mainland, her landing force served ashore at Taku.[2] In addition, Marines from Yorktown participated in the actions at Tientsin between June and July.[12] Under the command of Commander Edward D. Taussig from June 1900 to June 1901, she continued to support the China Relief Expedition forces. In June 1900, she assisted Oregon back off a reef near that Chinese port.[2]

The gunboat departed Shanghai on 10 September 1900 and reached Cavite on the 17th. In the Philippines, she resumed her cooperation with Army forces, still engaged in pacification operations, and continued these duties for the next two years. In between pacification missions, she performed survey work: at

Joseph Quick rescued a shipmate from drowning while the ship was in port at Yokohama, Japan. For his efforts, Quick was awarded a peacetime Medal of Honor.[13][14] Yorktown departed the Far East in early 1903 and returned to Mare Island on 3 June. Two weeks later, on the 17th, she was decommissioned.[2]

1906–1912

Recommissioned at Mare Island on 1 October 1906, with Commander Richard T. Mulligan in command, Yorktown was fitted out there until 9 November. Underway on that day, she operated off the west coasts of Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua into the following summer. After repairs at San Francisco and Mare Island, Yorktown conducted target practice at

Pacific Fleet to Magdalena Bay and San Francisco. Over the ensuing months, Yorktown continued her regular local operations.[2]

Yorktown hosted the Secretary of the Navy,

Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. Later in July, the ship visited Esquimalt, British Columbia. She subsequently cruised off the Pacific coast and participated in the Portolá Festival at San Francisco in October.[2]

From 13 December 1909 to 27 March 1910, Yorktown operated off Corinto, Nicaragua, with the

Amapala, Honduras, and the familiar Corinto for most of November and December. She spent Christmas at Corinto before shifting to Amapala, en route to San Francisco and Mare Island. From March to July 1911, Yorktown cruised off the west coasts of Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras. On 29 May, she rescued the survivors from the foundered Panamanian steamer Taboga,[2] which had sunk with the loss of 60 of its 100 passengers and crew.[17] Another period of repairs and upkeep in the late summer of 1911 proceeded the ship's duties off the Pacific coasts of South and Central America. She returned to Mare Island in May 1912, and was decommissioned there for alterations on 15 July.[2]

1913–1919

Recommissioned on 1 April 1913, with Commander George B. Bradshaw in command, Yorktown operated out of San Diego on shakedown into mid-April. She was soon back at Corinto, however, remaining in Nicaragua until 5 June. After a brief period of operations off the coast, she returned to Corinto on 21 June and remained there for over a month before departing on 31 July to coal at

Topolobampo, Mexico, on the 11th. Yorktown remained there until mid-September.[2]

For the remainder of 1913, Yorktown conducted local operations out of San Diego and San Francisco. In January 1914, though, the gunboat returned to Mexican waters and investigated local conditions at Ensenada between 3 and 6 January before moving, in subsequent months, to a succession of Mexican ports: Mazatlán, San Blas, Miramar, Topolobampo, and La Paz. Following an overhaul at Mare Island from 24 June to 2 September 1914, Yorktown served in Mexican waters again into June 1915. From that point until the entry of the United States into World War I in April 1917, Yorktown continued her routine of patrols off Mexican, Nicaraguan, and Honduran ports with occasional repairs at Mare Island and maneuvers out of San Diego.[2]

Yorktown rescued the last surviving members of the guano mining settlement on Clipperton Island in July 1917.

After the United States joined the Allies, Yorktown operated off the coast of Mexico until August 1917, when she paused briefly at San Diego. On 18 July 1917, Yorktown rescued the last surviving members of an abandoned guano mining settlement on Clipperton Island. From a peak population of roughly 100 in 1915, only four women and seven children survived. After her time off the Mexican coast, Yorktown then cruised off the west coasts of Central and South America into 1918. After a refit at Mare Island, Yorktown, sailed for the east coast on 28 April 1918, transiting the Panama Canal en route, and arrived at New York on 20 August. The gunboat escorted a coastal convoy to Halifax, soon thereafter before returning to New York. She performed local coastwise escort duties through the end of World War I. After a period of upkeep at the New York Navy Yard in December, she departed the east coast on 2 January 1919 on her last voyage to California.[2]

Arriving at San Diego on 15 February 1919, Yorktown was placed out of commission at Mare Island on 12 June 1919. On 17 June 1920, she was assigned the hull number PG-1. The veteran steel-hulled gunboat was sold to the Union Hide Company of Oakland, California, on 30 September 1921;[2] she was broken up in Oakland sometime after that.[3]

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Yorktown (PG-1).
  1. calibers
    , meaning that the gun is 30 times long as it is in diameter.

References

  1. ^ a b "A taste of the spoils" (PDF). The New York Times. 19 March 1889. p. 1. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag "Yorktown". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Silverstone, p. 67.
  4. ^ a b c d Bauer and Roberts, p. 155.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "The cruisers launched" (PDF). The New York Times. 29 April 1888. p. 1. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
  6. ^ a b c DiGiulian, Tony (25 December 2008). "United States of America: 6"/30, 6"/35 and 6"/40 (15.2 cm) Marks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7". Naval Weapons of the World. Navweaps.com. Retrieved 16 April 2009.
  7. ^ DiGiulian, Tony (6 April 2008). "United States of America: 6-pdr (2.72 kg) [2.244" (57 mm)] Marks 1 through 13". Naval Weapons of the World. Navweaps.com. Retrieved 16 April 2009.
  8. ^ Hardy, pp. 204–05.
  9. ^ Hardy, p. 210.
  10. ^ Hardy, p. 220–21.
  11. ^ Hardy, pp. 198–99.
  12. ^ "Tientsin: The Chinese Reinforce; Allied Assault Delayed". Documents of the Boxer Rebellion. Navy Department, Naval Historical Center. 13 March 2000. Retrieved 20 April 2009. Also: "Tientsin: The Capture of Tientsin, 13 July 1900". Documents of the Boxer Rebellion. Navy Department, Naval Historical Center. 13 March 2000. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  13. ^ "Interim Awards, 1901–1911". Medal of Honor Recipients. U.S. Army Center of Military History. 27 January 2009. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  14. ^ "Navy Medal of Honor: Interim Period 1901–1910". The Navy's Medal of Honor. Navy Department, Naval Historical Center. 14 April 1997. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  15. ^ Wimmel, p. 230.
  16. ^ a b Albertson, p. 48
  17. ^ "Sixty passengers drowned" (PDF). The New York Times. 26 May 1911. p. 1. Retrieved 20 April 2009.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

Bibliography

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