Gunboats

[Brian James]

Yorktown Class Gunboat USS Concord PG-3 pictured about to depart Dry Dock No.1 at Mare Island Navy Yard on June 26th 1903.

[Brian James]

Lead ship,Gunboat USS Wheeling pictured on her commissioning day at Mare Island Navy Yard,August 10th 1897.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship,Gunboat USS Wilmington pictured on the Orinoco River in 1899.

[Brian James]

Gunboat USS Castine pictured c1900...She saw service during the Spanish-American War,the Philippine-American War and World War I.She was built at Bath Iron Works Shipyards,Maine in 1892.On September 12th 1924 she was under tow to Texas, where she was to be scrapped, when an internal explosion aboard her caused her to sink in 20 minutes.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship,Gunboat USS Dubuque pictured at New York c1906.Built by Gas Engine & Power Company & Charles L Seabury Company Shipyards in the Bronx,New York in 1905,she had a design speed of 12 knots, and a main armament of six 4" rapid-fire guns and four 6-pounder rapid-fire guns in single mounts.The hull was of composite construction, with steel above the waterline and wood below.

[Brian James]

Elegant lines.....Wooden Hulled screw Gunboat USS Yantic pictured in 1898.

[Brian James]

Steel Gunboat USS Bancroft pictured in 1893.She was laid down at Samuel L Moore & Sons Shipyard,Elizabethport,New Jersey in 1891 and commissioned at New York Navy Yard,Brooklyn on March 3rd 1893.She was in commission from 1893 to 1898 and again from 1902 to 1905.Bancroft was designated as a Training Ship for midshipmen at the USN Naval Academy at Annapolis.Similar in shape to a small Gunboat, the ship had a steel hull and a relatively heavy armament, ranging from 4-inch rapid-fire guns to a Gatling gun and a torpedo tube, to give midshipmen experience on the Navy's latest weaponry.She was scrapped in 1922.

[Brian James]

Lead Ship,Gunboat USS Dubuque pictured in 1910.

[Brian James]

Schooner rigged Gunboat USS Machias pictured in 1901.She was launched at Bath Ironworks Shipyard,Maine on December 8th 1891 and commissioned at Portsmouth Navy Yard,Kittery,Maine on July 20th 1893.She was decommissioned At Mare Island Navy Yard on October 3rd 1919 and was sold on October 29th 1920 to the Mexican Navy. Renamed Aqua Prieta, the old Gunboat served as a transport and Coast Guard Ship along the west coast of Mexico for the next 15 years. The Mexican Navy finally disposed of her in late 1935.

[Brian James]

Schooner rigged Gunboat USS Machias pictured in 1901.