USS Yankee (1892)

Last updated

USS Yankee (1892).jpg
Yankee as a training ship in the early 1900s.
History
US flag 45 stars.svgUnited States
NameUSS Yankee
Launched14 June 1892
Completed15 August 1892
Acquired6 April 1898
Commissioned
  • 14 April 1898
  • 1 May 1903
  • 15 June 1908
Decommissioned
  • 16 March 1899
  • 25 September 1906
Stricken17 April 1912
FateSunk 4 December 1908
General characteristics
Displacement6,225 long tons (6,325 t) (full)
Length406 ft 1.5 in (123.787 m)
Beam48 ft 4.5 in (14.745 m)
Draft21 ft 1 in (6.43 m) (aft)
Speed14.5  kn (16.7 mph; 26.9 km/h)
Complement282
Armament
Notes

USS Yankee was originally El Norte, a steamer launched 14 June 1892 and delivered 15 August 1892 at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. for the Southern Pacific Railroad's Morgan Line. [1] [2] The ship was acquired by the United States Navy from the Southern Pacific Company on 6 April 1898. The ship was renamed and commissioned at New York on 14 April 1898, Commander Willard H. Brownson in command.

Contents

Career

Spanish–American War

After fitting out as an auxiliary cruiser, the ship joined in the Spanish–American War and patrolled the coastal waters between Block Island and Cape Henlopen until 27 May. That day, Yankee stopped at Tompkinsville, New York to coal ship. On 29 May, she returned to sea and shaped a southerly course to join the fleet off Cuba. En route, she touched briefly at St. Nicholas Mole, Haiti, on the evening of 2 June and then continued on toward Cuba. Early the following morning, Yankee joined the blockade off Santiago de Cuba and conducted patrols there for the next five days.

Battle of Guantánamo Bay

On the morning of 6 June, she dueled shore batteries briefly and, near Santiago and on 7 June, joined Marblehead and St. Louis for a cable cutting incursion into Guantanamo Bay. While St. Louis dragged for and cut the three cables, Yankee and Marblehead covered her activities by engaging the Spanish gunboats Alvarado and Sandoval. After putting the Spanish gunboats to flight, the two American warships turned their attention toward the fort at Caimanera which had been making a nuisance of itself with its single large-caliber gun—a venerable, smooth-bore muzzleloader. As Yankee and Marblehead silenced their last adversary, St. Louis completed her cable-cutting mission; and the three ships exited the bay.

Yankee then briefly resumed blockade duty off Santiago, but on 8 June got underway for St. Nicholas Mole with dispatches. On 9 June, just before she arrived at her destination, the auxiliary cruiser stopped two merchantmen and inspected them. They turned out to be the Norwegian SS Norse and the British SS Ely, so Yankee allowed them to proceed on their way. She completed her mission at Haiti and returned to Santiago early the following morning. At about noon on 10 June, Yankee set a course for Port Antonio, Jamaica, to deliver dispatches and to search for the suspected blockade runner SS Purissima Concepcion. After delivering the dispatches at Port Antonio on 10 June. and visiting Montego Bay in search of Purissima Concepcion, the warship returned to the Santiago area on 12 June. However, that same day, she received orders to move again, this time to Cienfuegos, about halfway up the southern coast of Cuba from Santiago, to stand guard there against Purissima Concepcion's expected run.

Action off Cienfuegos

The auxiliary cruiser arrived off Cienfuegos on 13 June and began patrolling the approaches to the harbor. At about 13:15 that afternoon, she spied a steamer standing out of the port toward her. Identifying the stranger as the Spanish gunboat Diego Velázquez, Yankee cleared for action and closed the enemy. At about 1,500 yd (1,400 m) range, the American ship put her helm over, unmasked her port battery, and opened fire. The Spanish gunboat, markedly inferior to Yankee in armament, opted for a running fight in which she presented the smallest possible target and in which Yankee could bring only one or two of her guns to bear without turning away from her target's course. Consequently, Diego Velázquez came about and headed back toward Cienfuegos, firing as she went. Yankee followed, shooting her port forecastle gun constantly and periodically turning to starboard to unmask her entire port battery. Ultimately, Diego Velázquez reached safety under the protection of Sabanilla Battery, and the gunboat Lince came out to join her in the fray. Yankee continued to fire her port battery as she passed the two gunboats and shore battery abeam at about 4,000 yd (3,700 m) range. She completed one pass and then put the helm to port and came about for another pass, this time bringing her starboard battery into action for the first time. During Yankee's second pass, Diego Velázquez and Lince abandoned the fight and sought refuge in Cienfuegos harbor. Yankee continued firing on Sabanilla Battery until 15:00 and then withdrew to her blockade station off the harbor.

Yankee remained off Cienfuegos for two days. On 14 June, there was a brief moment of anxiety when a large man-of-war started out of the harbor. Yankee cleared for action and stood in toward the warship, but all hands breathed a sigh of relief when the newcomer was identified as the neutral German SMS Geier. The following afternoon, the auxiliary cruiser gave up her vigil for Purissima Concepcion off Cienfuegos and set a course back to the eastern end of Cuba. She rejoined the Santiago blockade on 16 June but put into the anchorage at Guantanamo Bay the following day to take on coal. Late on 18 June, the ship returned to sea bound once more for blockade duty off Cienfuegos. On 19 June, during the passage from Guantanamo Bay to Cienfuegos, Yankee stopped and inspected two sailing vessels—a British schooner and a Norwegian bark—and a steamer, the British SS Adula. All three had their papers in order, and the auxiliary cruiser allowed them to proceed unmolested. That evening, she arrived off Cienfuegos and began cruising on blockade station between that port and Casilda.

Action off Casilda

At about 08:30 on the morning of 20 June, Yankee sighted a steamer lying in Casilda harbor closely fitting the description of Purissima Concepcion. The American ship stood in as close to the shoals as she dared and then fired a shot across the steamer's bow in an unsuccessful effort to make her show her colors. Instead, the merchantman began preparations for getting underway. Yankee responded by opening a steady fire at extreme range. As the supposed Spanish steamer moved farther into shoal water and disappeared behind some islets, Yankee shifted fire to an enemy gunboat and a floating battery, both of which had opened an ineffective fire upon her. The extreme range—in excess of 5,000 yd (4,600 m)—made the gunfire from both sides so ineffective that Yankee broke off the engagement and resumed her patrols between Casilda and Cienfuegos. The auxiliary cruiser continued her blockade of that stretch of the Cuban coast until 24 June, when her dwindling supply of coal forced her to head for Key West. En route to that base, she visited the Isle of Pines where she captured and destroyed five Spanish fishing vessels on 25 June.

Blockade of Cuba

Yankee arrived in Key West on 27 June and began taking on coal. She completed her refueling operation and departed Key West on 3 July, bound for New York, where she arrived two days later. She remained at New York until 12 July, taking on ammunition for transportation to the Eastern Squadron on the Cuban blockade. On 13 July, she reached Norfolk, where she spent another four days taking on additional ammunition for the ships of the blockading squadron. Yankee left Hampton Roads on 17 July and arrived in Guantanamo Bay four days later. There, she began the tedious but dangerous job of transferring her cargo of ammunition to the various warships in the anchorage. The ship remained at Guantanamo Bay until 11 August, when she resumed blockade duty, patrolling initially in search of the armed merchant ship Montserrat. Three days later, while she cruised the northern coast of Cuba, Yankee received word of the cessation of hostilities in response to Spain's suit for peace. She reentered Guantanamo Bay on the afternoon of 15 August and remained there until 24 August when she headed home.

Training ship

Yankee stopped briefly at Tompkinsville at the end of August and then made a round-trip voyage to League Island, and back to Tompkinsville at the beginning of September. She returned to League Island on 19 September. There, her crew of New York Naval Militia reservists left the ship to return home via train for mustering out. Though she remained in commission technically until decommissioned on 16 March 1899, Yankee spent the interim at League Island. That location also remained her home for the more than three years she spent in reserve. Her inactivity ended when she was placed back in commission on 1 May 1903, Commander G. P. Colvocoressee in command.

Following recommissioning, Yankee served along the east coast between Chesapeake Bay and the Maine coast training landsmen in the ways of the sea. Early in December 1903, she headed south for winter maneuvers and gunnery drills with the North Atlantic Fleet in the gulf and the Caribbean around Hispaniola. Yankee served at Santo Domingo to help restore order and to straighten out the country's financial muddle. On 1 February, the ship was fired upon by rebel troops. In response, the United States sent the protected cruisers USS Columbia and USS Newark. In the Santo Domingo Affair, the two ships bombarded the city and sent a landing party ashore on 11 February.

After visiting a number of West Indian ports in conjunction with the exercises, she returned north late in March 1904, and on 6 April, was moored to a pier at League Island where she remained until October. On 16 October, she got underway for Newport News to embark 400 landsmen there before resuming her training schedule.

In December, Yankee made a round-trip voyage to Panama to exchange marine garrisons in the Canal Zone. She disembarked some of the returning marines at Hampton Roads on 31 December 1904 and on New Year's Day 1905 pushed on toward Tompkinsville to deliver the remainder. After a return voyage to Newport News, she headed for League Island where she entered the navy yard for repairs on 13 January.

Occupation of the Dominican Republic

The ship completed those repairs on 9 March and loaded men, stores, and ammunition at Tompkinsville from 10 to 12 March before getting underway for the West Indies. For the next seventeen months, the island of Hispaniola, Cuba's neighbor to the east, became her center of operations. Successive coups since assassination of the dictator Heureaux in 1899 had added civil strife and anarchy to the list of woes of a country already racked by desperate financial problems. Yankee spent most of her time in Dominican waters and ports, departing infrequently for replenishment stops at such American bases as Key West and Guantanamo Bay and made one voyage back to New York in July 1905 for repairs at the New York Navy Yard.

On 20 August 1906 she had a very minor collision with a float being towed by Transfer No. 16 in the East River. [3] The ship, by then classified as a transport, left for Santo Domingo on 21 August 1906 and after participating in the Presidential Naval Review held at Oyster Bay from 2 to 4 September, she unloaded stores at New York in preparation for inactivation. On 25 September, Yankee was again placed out of commission at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Sometime during the next two years, she was moved to the Boston Navy Yard, for it was at that location that she was once again commissioned on 15 June 1908, Commander Charles C. Marsh in command.

Sinking

After shakedown early in July, the ship resumed a familiar duty—training. With naval militia reservists or Naval Academy midshipmen embarked, she spent the summer of 1908 cruising the Atlantic coast between Boston and Chesapeake Bay. On 23 September 1908, during one such training exercise, Yankee ran aground on Spindle Rock near Hen and Chickens lightship. She remained there until refloated on 4 December by the Arbuckle Wrecking Company. Her reprieve however, was short-lived. While being towed to New Bedford on the day she was refloated, she sank in Buzzards Bay. Yankee's name was finally struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 17 April 1912. Her boilers and other equipment were salvaged in 1917–1918. [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

USS <i>Iowa</i> (BB-4) Pre-dreadnought battleship of the United States Navy

USS Iowa was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the United States Navy in the mid-1890s. The ship was a marked improvement over the previous Indiana-class battleships, correcting many of the defects in the design of those vessels. Among the most important improvements were significantly better seaworthiness owing to her greater freeboard and a more efficient arrangement of the armament. Iowa was designed to operate on the high seas, which had been the impetus to increase the freeboard. She was armed with a battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns in two twin-gun turrets, supported by a secondary battery of eight 8-inch (203 mm) guns.

USS <i>Washington</i> (ACR-11)

The seventh USS Washington (ACR-11/CA-11/IX-39), also referred to as "Armored Cruiser No. 11", and later renamed Seattle and reclassified CA-11 and IX-39, was a United States Navy Tennessee-class armored cruiser. She was laid down on 23 September 1903 at Camden, New Jersey, by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, launched on 18 March 1905, sponsored by Miss Helen Stewart Wilson, daughter of United States Senator John L. Wilson of Washington state, and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 7 August 1906, Captain James D. Adams in command.

SS <i>St. Louis</i> (1894)

SS St. Louis, was a transatlantic passenger liner built by the William Cramp & Sons Building & Engine Company, Philadelphia and was launched on 12 November 1894; sponsored by Mrs. Grover Cleveland, wife of the President of the United States; and entered merchant service in 1895, under United States registry for the International Navigation Co., of New York City with her maiden voyage between New York and Southampton, England. She was acquired by the United States Navy during the Spanish–American War and commissioned under the name USS St. Louis in 1898, and again during World War I under the name USS Louisville (ID-1644) from 1918 to 1919. After she reverted to her original name in 1919, she burned in 1920 while undergoing a refit. She was scrapped in 1924 in Genoa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bernadou</span>

John Baptiste Bernadou was an officer in the United States Navy during the Spanish–American War. Born in Philadelphia, Bernadou graduated from the Naval Academy in 1880. He was promoted ten numbers for gallantry in action while commanding USS Winslow at the First and Second Battle of Cardenas, Cuba, from May 8 to May 11, 1898. John Baptiste Bernadou died at the Naval Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, on October 2, 1908, and is buried with his wife Florence Whiting in Arlington National Cemetery Section S. Div Site 2004 W.S

USS <i>Marblehead</i> (C-11) Gunboat of the United States Navy

The second USS Marblehead (C-11/PG-27) was a Montgomery-class unprotected cruiser in the United States Navy, authorized in the naval appropriations bill of September 7, 1888. Marblehead served in the Spanish–American War and World War I, and was the last ship of her class in service.

USS <i>Yosemite</i> (1892) Auxiliary cruiser of the United States Navy

The first USS Yosemite was an auxiliary cruiser of the United States Navy. Built as El Sud in 1892 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, in Newport News, Virginia for the Southern Pacific Railroad's Morgan Line. The Navy acquired El Sud on 6 April 1898, at the beginning of the Spanish–American War and renamed her Yosemite. It commissioned her on 13 April 1898 under Commander William H. Emory.

USS <i>Kansas</i> (1863) Gunboat of the United States Navy

USS Kansas was a gunboat constructed for the Union Navy during the middle of the American Civil War. She was outfitted with heavy guns and assigned to the Union blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America. She was the first U.S. Navy ship to be named Kansas and was the first of a class of 836-ton screw steam gunboats. At war's end, she continued serving her country by performing survey work and defending American interests in Cuba until sold in 1883.

USS <i>Annapolis</i> (PG-10) Gunboat of the United States Navy

The first USS Annapolis (PG-10/IX-1) was a gunboat in the United States Navy. She was named for Annapolis, Maryland.

USS <i>Porter</i> (TB-6) Torpedo boat of the United States Navy

USS Porter was a torpedo boat, the first of her class, launched in 1896, served during the Spanish–American War, and struck in 1912. She was the first Navy ship named for Commodore David Porter, and his son, Admiral David Dixon Porter.

USS <i>Wilmington</i> (PG-8) Gunboat of the United States Navy

USS Wilmington (PG-8) was the lead ship in a class of two United States Navy gunboats. She was laid down on 8 October 1894 at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company; launched on 19 October 1895; sponsored by Mrs. Anne B. Gray; and commissioned on 13 May 1897.

USS <i>Hist</i> Tender of the United States Navy

USS Hist, formerly Thespia, was built in 1895. She was purchased at Norfolk from David Dows, Jr., on 22 April 1898 for use in the Spanish–American War. Hist commissioned 13 May at New York, Lt. Lucien Young in command.

USS <i>Topeka</i> (PG-35) Gunboat of the United States Navy

USS Topeka (PG-35) was a gunboat of the United States Navy.

USS <i>Mayflower</i> (1897) United States Navy and Coast Guard vessel

The second USS Suwannee and third USS Mayflower was a United States Lighthouse Board, and later United States Lighthouse Service, lighthouse tender transferred to the United States Navy in 1898 for service as an auxiliary cruiser during the Spanish–American War and from 1917 to 1919 for service as a patrol vessel during World War I. She also served the Lighthouse Board and in the Lighthouse Service as USLHT Mayflower from 1897 to 1898, from 1898 to 1917, and from 1919 to 1939, and in the United States Coast Guard as the first USCGC Mayflower (WAGL-236) in 1939 and from 1940 to 1943 and as USCGC Hydrangea (WAGL-236) from 1943 to 1945.

Spanish cruiser <i>Reina Mercedes</i>

Reina Mercedes, was an Alfonso XII-class cruiser of the Spanish Navy.

USS <i>Wasp</i> (1893) Patrol vessel of the United States Navy

The seventh USS Wasp was the former yacht Columbia, purchased by the U.S. Navy and converted to an armed yacht serving from 1898 to 1919, with service in the Spanish–American War and World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Third Battle of Manzanillo</span>

The Third Battle of Manzanillo was a naval engagement that occurred on July 18, 1898, between an American fleet commanded by Chapman C. Todd against a Spanish fleet led by Joaquín Gómez de Barreda, which occurred during the Spanish–American War. The significantly more powerful United States Navy squadron, consisting of four gunboats, two armed tugs and a patrol yacht, overpowered a Royal Spanish Navy squadron which consisted of four gunboats, three pontoon used as floating batteries and three transports, sinking or destroying all the Spanish ships present without losing a single ship of their own. The victory came on the heels of a more significant American success at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, and was the third largest naval engagement of the war after Santiago de Cuba and the Battle of Manila Bay.

USS <i>Scorpion</i> (PY-3) US Navy yacht

The fourth USS Scorpion was a steam yacht in commission in the United States Navy from 1898 to 1899, 1899 to 1901, and 1902 to 1927.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action of 13 June 1898</span>

The action of 13 June 1898 was a minor naval engagement of the Spanish–American War fought near Cienfuegos, Cuba, between the American auxiliary cruiser USS Yankee under Commander Willard Herbert Brownson and the Spanish gunboat Diego Velázquez under Teniente de Navío de 1ª clase Juan de Carranza, which had exited the port to inspect a suspicious steamer which proved to be Yankee. Diego Velázquez, markedly inferior to Yankee in armament, managed to return to Cienfuegos, where it was joined by the small gunboats Lince and Cometa. After the appearance of the latters, Yankee decided to withdraw.

SMS <i>Geier</i> Unprotected cruiser of the German Imperial Navy

SMS Geier was an unprotected cruiser of the Bussard class built for the German Imperial Navy. She was laid down in 1893 at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven, launched in October 1894, and commissioned into the fleet a year later in October 1895. Designed for service in Germany's overseas colonies, the ship required the comparatively heavy armament of eight 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/35 guns and a long cruising radius. She had a top speed of 15.5 kn.

USS <i>Wompatuck</i> Tugboat of the United States Navy

USS Wompatuck (YT-27) was an armed tug in commission in the United States Navy from 1898 to 1931. Early in her naval career, she saw combat in the Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War. After she was decommissioned, she was selected for conversion into the fuel oil barge YO-64, but she was lost in the early days of World War II in the Pacific before the conversion could be completed.

References

  1. ↑ Colton, Tim (18 April 2018). "Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News VA". ShipbuildingHistory. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  2. ↑ "El Norte". The Marine Engineer and Naval Architect. 1 August 1892. p. 240. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  3. ↑ "Annual report of the Supervising Inspector-general Steamboat-inspection Service, Year ending June 30, 1907". Harvard University. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
  4. ↑ "American Marine Engineer December, 1918". National Marine Engineers Beneficial Association of the United States. Retrieved 22 October 2020– via Haithi Trust.
  5. ↑ "USS Yankee". Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources. Retrieved 14 November 2021.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.

Coordinates: 43°00′18″N70°20′36″W / 43.00500°N 70.34333°W / 43.00500; -70.34333

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.