USS Yorktown (PG-1)

The second USS "Yorktown", (PG-1) a steel-hulled, twin-screw gunboat in the United States Navy, was named in honor of the Battle of Yorktown in the American Revolutionary War.

Early years

"Yorktown" was laid down on 14 May 1887 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by the William Cramp and Sons' shipyard; launched on 28 April 1888; sponsored by Miss Mary Cameron, the daughter of United States Senator Don Cameron; and commissioned at the League Island (Philadelphia) Navy Yard on 23 April 1889, Commander French E. Chadwick in command.

"Yorktown" conducted final sea trials before being assigned to the "Squadron of Evolution" —sometimes referred to as the "White Squadron"— in the autumn of 1889. "Yorktown" operated with that unit as it developed tactical maneuvers for use by the new steel-hulled naval vessels then coming into service in the United States Navy.

After this duty, "Yorktown" departed the east coast of the United States on 7 December 1889, bound for European waters; stopped briefly at Fayal in the Azores; and arrived at Lisbon, Portugal, two days before Christmas. The ship subsequently cruised the Mediterranean into the early spring of the following year, calling at ports in Spain, Morocco, France, Italy, Greece, and Malta. Following her return to the United States on 17 June 1890, the warship entered drydock at 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.

"Yorktown" next again operated in the Squadron of Evolution off the eastern seaboard and into the Gulf of Mexico into the summer of 1891. Under Acting Rear Admiral John G. Walker, the squadron normally cruised in the Gulf of Mexico from January to April and off the east coast from May to October. While in the gulf, the ships called at Galveston, Texas, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Pensacola, Florida, and carried out target practice in Tampa Bay. Later, the squadron conducted small arms practice at Yorktown, Virginia, after arriving at Hampton Roads. In July 1891, the squadron carried out exercises and maneuvers in connection with the naval militias of New York and Massachusetts during which it added torpedo attacks upon the Fleet to the usual target practices. In addition, it conducted drills and landing exercises—the precursors of the amphibious landing operations of World War II over five decades later.

The Secretary of the Navy's report for the fiscal year 1891 noted with pride 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.

Chilean crisis

On 8 October 1891, "Yorktown", under the command of Comdr. Robley D. Evans, departed New York to join the Pacific Squadron. The gunboat put in to Charlotte Amalie, United States Virgin Islands, to "coal ship" on 14 October. While the ship was engaged in this grimy, dusty duty, an incident occurred on the other side of the South American continent that would directly affect "Yorktown's" future employment. A revolution in Chile had caused deep division in the country. The victors charged the United States with favoritism when it sheltered some of the losing side's leaders in the U.S. consulate at Valparaíso. A mob of Chileans, wielding knives and clubs and throwing rocks, set upon a liberty party from the cruiser "Baltimore". In the ensuing riot, two bluejackets were killed and 18 wounded. Thirty-six American sailors were arrested by the local authorities and incarcerated in Chilean jails. War fever ran high in both Chile and the United States.

After getting underway on 17 October, "Yorktown" made few stops en route to the troubled Chilean seaport and weathered fierce gales in transiting the Straits of Magellan. In the days before rapid communication had shrunk distances and had allowed quick transmission of orders and news, the passage of time was critical. War between the United States and Chile could have broken out at any time during "Yorktown's" hurried voyage 'round the Horn.

The gunboat eventually arrived at Valparaíso on 30 November. Less than two weeks later, "Baltimore"— her presence now no longer advisable—departed, leaving American interests in the hands of Comdr. Evans and "Yorktown". Over the ensuing weeks, Chile and the United States teetered on the brink of 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.

After a month of "showing the flag," "Yorktown" embarked 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. "Yorktown" may have looked "none too potent" at Valparaíso, but her visit-—as Evans' biographer Edwin A. Folk later wrote, ". . . sufficed to make the natives realize that she flew a battleship-size flag and was commanded by an officer who knew how to defend it." The Chilean government provided gold for the families of the slain American bluejackets, and restored the American minister, who had been declared persona non grata during the incident.

ealing patrol

"Yorktown" stood out of Callao on 4 March, steamed northward via San Diego and San Francisco, and eventually arrived at the 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, Comdr. Evans and his command soon set sail on another mission that, if handled wrongly, could have caused ill-feeling with the British.

That spring, "Yorktown"—along with two other naval vessels and a trio of revenue cutters—headed toward Arctic waters on 27 April to protect the great herds of seals in the Bering Sea from poachers. Traveling along the 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. They were "armed" with double-barrelled shotguns for killing the animals and Winchester rifles for dealing with any humans who attempted to interfere with their trade. 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."

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.

Telescopic gunsight

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".

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

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 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.

On 24 September 1894, "Yorktown" sailed for the western Pacific and duty on the Asiatic Station. Sailing via Honolulu, Hawaii, 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.

panish-American War

Recommissioned on 17 November 1898, Commander Charles S. Sperry in command, "Yorktown" sailed again for the Far East on 7 January 1899. Rumors of German machinations in Samoa lengthened "Yorktown's" stay at Hawaii from a few days to a few weeks; but, when the anticipated trouble failed to materialize, "Yorktown" resumed her voyage to the Philippine Islands. She arrived at Cavite Navy Yard, near Manila, on 23 February.

There, "Yorktown" was assigned the task of keeping a seaborne lookout for gun-runners who were thought to be supplying guns and ammunition to the "Insurrectos," Filipinos who were fighting for independence.

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 man those patrol craft. Among the junior officers who served in "Yorktown" at this time were future Admirals (then ensigns) William Harrison Standley and Harry E. Yarnell, and the future naval historian and archivist, Dudley Wright Knox.

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 insurrectionists 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, Ensign Standley and an enlisted man landed further 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 guerrillas, 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 Army troops. Ensign Standley completed his mission and, together with the enlisted signalman, made it back to the ship.

Boxer Rebellion

In the spring of 1900, the situation in China worsened until it culminated in the Boxer Rebellion. "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. In June 1900, she assisted "Oregon" (Battleship No. 3) back off a reef near that Chinese port.

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 Guam in November 1901 and at Dumanquillas Bay, Philippines, in February 1903. "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.

1906 – 1909

Recommissioned at Mare Island on 1 October 1906, 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 Magdalena Bay, Mexico, and relieved "Albany" as station ship at Acapulco. She then cruised with the 2d Squadron of the Pacific Fleet to Magdalena Bay and San Francisco.

Over the ensuing months, "Yorktown" continued her regular local operations; she took part in the reception for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet at San Francisco on 1 May, and participated in festivities for the Rose Festival at Portland, Oregon, on the 30th of that month. From June to September, "Yorktown" conducted seal patrols in Alaskan waters, out of Nome, Unalaska, and Sitka, and between 15 September and 19 September, established a site for a wireless station at Valdez, Alaska.

After that independent duty, "Yorktown" sailed south to rejoin the Pacific Fleet, conducting battle practices between 19 November and 1 December at Magdalena Bay. She later joined the armored cruisers "West Virginia" and "Colorado" and the tender "Glacier" at Acajutla, Salvador, before sailing for Corinto, Nicaragua, in March 1909.

After more target practices at Magdalena Bay, "Yorktown" was repaired at Mare Island in June and into July before shifting to Seattle, Wash., to participate in festivities for the Seattle Exposition. Later in July, the ship visited Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada. She subsequently cruised off the Pacific coast and participated in the Portola festival at San Francisco in October.

1910 – 1917

From 13 December 1909 to 27 March 1910, "Yorktown" operated off Corinto, Nicaragua, with the Nicaraguan Expeditionary Squadron. She then pursued a schedule of exercises and maneuvers, operating between California and British Columbia through June and July. She returned to a posture of readiness off Corinto and San Juan del Sur between 13 August and 7 September. She then operated off Ecuadorian, Colombian, and Peruvian ports, with the United States Consul General at Large embarked, between 19 September and 16 October before putting into Panama for coal and stores. She subsequently patrolled at 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 steamer "Taboga", of Panamanian registry. 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.

Recommissioned on 1 April 1913, 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 Salina Cruz, Mexico. She moved to Mazatlán on 10 August and there picked up mail, delivering it to the port of Topolobampo, Mexico, on the 11th. "Yorktown" remained there until mid-September.

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 January and 6 January before moving, in subsequent months, to a succession of ports: Mazatlán, San Bias, Miramir, 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.

World War I

After the United States joined the Allied and Associated Powers, "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 mining settlement on Clipperton Island. From a peak population of roughly 100 in 1915, only four women and six 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 (former city), Nova Scotia, soon there after 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.

Decommissioning

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, Oakland, California, on 30 September 1921.

See also

See USS "Yorktown" for other ships of this name.

*List of patrol vessels of the United States Navy