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Gunboat Photo Archive

Yorktown (PG 1)



Call sign (1919):
George - Rush - Pup - Jig

ex-Yorktown (Gunboat No. 1)



Call sign (1913):
Nan - Quack - Xray

Call sign (1909):
Nan - Xray - Dog
Yorktown Class Gunboat:

  • Laid down 14 May 1887 by William Cramp and Sons Shipyard, Philadelphia, PA
  • Launched 28 April 1888
  • Accepted 23 March 1889
  • Commissioned USS Yorktown (Gunboat No. 1), 23 April 1889 at the League Island (Philadelphia) Navy Yard
  • Decommissioned 8 December 1897 at Mare Island, CA
  • Recommissioned 17 November 1898
  • Decommissioned 3 June 1903 at Mare Island
  • Recommissioned 1 October 1906
  • Decommissioned 16 July 1912 for modernization and alterations at Mare Island
  • Recommissioned 1 April 1913
  • Decommissioned 12 June 1919 at Mare Island
  • Designated PG-1, 17 July 1920
  • Struck from the Navy list 30 September 1921 and scrapped at the Union Hide Co. of Oakland, CA.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,910 t.
  • Length 245'
  • Beam 36'
  • Draft 14'
  • Speed 16.14 kts.
  • Complement 195
  • Armament: Six 6" breech-loading rifles, two 6-pounders, two 3-pounders, two 1-pounders and two .30 cal. machine guns
    1905 - Six 6" mounts, four 3-pounders, four 1-pounders and two .30 cal. Colt machine guns
    1910 - Six 6" breech-loading rifles and four 3-pounders
    1911 - Six 6"/30 rapid fire mounts, four 3-pounder rapid fire mounts and 1-pounder rapid fire mounts
    1914 - Six 5"/40 rapid fire mounts, four 3-pounders and four 1-pounders
    1918 - Six 5"/40 mounts, four 6-pounders and two 1-pounders
  • Propulsion: Four straight-away cylinderical boilers, two 1,696ihp horizontal triple-expansion engines, two shafts
    1914 - Four Marine locomotive boilers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Yorktown 615k Line drawing Tommy Trampp
    Yorktown 123k Line drawing by Edward H. Wiswesser
    Photo added 26 March 2020
    Yorktown 330k Line drawing from Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, Vol. 1, 1893. Collection of Robb Jensen Robb Jensen
    Yorktown 62k Tom Kermen
    Yorktown 70k Undated post card Tommy Trampp
    Yorktown 140k Jim Kurrasch, Battleship Iowa, Pacific Battleship Center
    Yorktown 263k The United States Navy's "Squadron of Evolution 1889", Commanded by Rear Admiral John G. Walker - at anchor in an east coast port. Ships include the protected cruiser USS Chicago (flagship) in left foreground. Astern of her (from left to right) is the gunboat USS Yorktown (Gunboat No. 1), the protected cruiser USS Boston, and the protected cruiser USS Atlanta
    Library of Congress photo det4a14142 courtesy of the Detroit Photographic Co.    		 Robert Hurst
    Yorktown 233k Running at full speed over the measured mile, off Newport, R. I. circa 1889. She was making 16.65 knots
    Courtesy of Dr. Henry P. Walker, 1975
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 49907    		 Mike Green
    Yorktown 209k Bow on view of Yorktown making full speed, 16.65 kts., over the measured mile at Newport, Rhode Island, circa 1889
    Photographed by F.H. Child, Newport
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 43169
    Petrel 400k Our New Navy, 1892: From left to right and top to bottom: Concord (PG-3); monitor Miantonomah(BM-5); cruiser Philadelphia (C-4); armored cruiser New York (CA-2); cruiser Pirate; cruiser Atlanta: cruiser Boston; cruiser Newark (C-1); dynamite cruiser Vesuvius; dispatch boat Dolphin (PG-24); flagship Chicago; cruiser Baltimore (C-3); gunboat Yorktown (PG 1); flagship San Francisco (C-5); coastline battleship Massachusetts (BB-2), Indiana (BB-1) and Oregon (BB-3); gunboat Petrel (PG-2); torpedo boat Cushing (TB-1); and cruiser Charleston (C-2)
    Photo by Edward H.Hart from the Library of Congress    		 Michael Mohl
    Yorktown 92k Photo from 1892 G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) Washington, D.C. Encampment Fold Out Book "Our Navy" of U.S. Ships Tommy Trampp
    Yorktown 162k At anchor, at New York during the Columbian Naval Parade, on 27 April 1893
    Photo courtesy of DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University    		 Robert Hurst
    Yorktown 65k c. 1895 Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center
    Yorktown 179k c. 1895
    Broadside view of the Yorktown at Acapulco, Mexico
    U.S. Navy photo PG 1 01-2-1895    		 Darryl Baker
    Yorktown 434k Photo from The American Navy; Belford, Middlebrook and Co., Chicago - 1898 Thomas Becher
    Yorktown 270k Yorktown's figurehead taken at Mare Island in 1903.
    U.S. Navy photo PG 1 001-1903    		 Darryl Baker
    Yorktown 104k Broadside view of Yorktown at Mare Island in 1903. The stern of the U.S. Fishing Commission steamer Albatross can be seen forward of Yorktown
    U.S. Navy photo PG 1 002-1903
    Bennington 180k Broadside view of Bennington (Gunboat No. 4) at Mare Island in the spring of 1903. Yorktown is inboard.
    U.S. Navy photo PG 4 004-10-1905    		 Original photo: Naval Historical Center
    Replacement photo: Darryl Baker
    Bennington 238k USS Bennington (Gunboat No. 4) at Mare Island in the spring of 1903. The Yorktown is inboard.
    U.S. Navy photos PG 4 002-10-1905 and PG 4 003-10-1905    		 Darryl Baker
    Bennington 228k
    Yorktown 188k Stern of Yorktown at Mare Island sea wall 8 June 1903.
    U.S. Navy photo PG 1 004-1903
    Yorktown 137k Yorktown moored in Mare Island channel in 1903.
    U.S. Navy photos PG 1 006-1903 and PG 1 008-1903
    Yorktown 183k
    Yorktown 152k This photo dated 1903 but believe it is a photo of the recommissioning ceremonies aboard Yorktown in 1906 at Mare Island.
    U.S. Navy photo PG 1 005-1903
    Yorktown 209k View of Yorktown in Dry Dock No. 1 at Mare Island in 1917. Shipyard records indicate she was in dock with USS Chattanooga (C 16) from 23 - 28 March 1917.
    U.S. Navy photo PG 1 001-1917
    Yorktown 107k c. April 2007
    USS Yorktown [CV 10] Museum, Charleston, SC
    Bell from Yorktown (PG 1)    		 Robert Hall
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR French Ensor Chadwick, USN - USNA Class of 1864
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		23 April 1889 - 17 July 1890
    02LT Duncan Kennedy, USN - USNA Class of 186817 July 1890 (Temporary)
    03CDR Harrison Gray Otis Colby, USN - USNA Class of 1867
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		17 May 1891 (Temporary)
    04CDR Robley Dungliston "Fightin' Bob" Evans, USN - USNA Class of 1864
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		18 June 1891 - 10 October 1892
    05CDR Frank Wildes, USN - USNA Class of 186310 October 1892 - 9 September 1893
    06CDR Purnell Frederick Harrington, USN - USNA Class of 18649 September 1893 - 29 January 1894
    07CDR Charles Hubert Stockton, USN - USNA Class of 186522 October 1895
    08CDR Charles S. Sperry, USN - USNA Class of 1866
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		17 November 1898
    09CDR Edward David Taussig, USN - USNA Class of 1867
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		5 June 1900 - 7 February 1901
    10CDR Aaron Ward, USN - USNA Class of 1871
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		7 February 1902 - 7 January 1903
    11LT Lewis Burton Jones, USN - USNA Class of 1894
    		7 January 1903 - 3 June 1903
    12CDR Richard Thomas Mulligan, USN - USNA Class of 18761 October 1906
    13LCDR James Henry Glennon, USN - USNA Class of 1874
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		4 August 1907 - 1908
    14CDR Harry Ashby Field, USN - USNA Class of 1883
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		17 July 1908
    15CDR Edwin Alexander Anderson, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 1882
    Awarded the Medal of Honor (1914) and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal (World War I)- Retired as Admiral    		1 October 1910 - 5 August 1911
    16CDR Levi Calvin Bertolette, USN - USNA Class of 18875 August 1911
    17LCDR Thomas Washington, USN - USNA Class of 1887
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		15 January 1912 - 15 July 1912
    18CDR George B. Bradshaw, USN - USNA Class of 18891 April 1913 - 18 July 1914
    19CDR William Harrison Standley, USN - USNA Class of 1895
    Retired as Admiral    		18 July 1914
    20LCDR Harlan Page Perrill, USN - USNA Class of 189710 July 1916
    21CDR William Henry Allen, USN - Retired as Rear Admiral20 April 1917 - 12 June 1919
    22CDR John Joseph Hannigan, USN - USNA Class of 1901
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1920)    		3 January 1919 - 12 June 1919
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View Yorktown (PG-1) Library of Congress Images
    View the Yorktown (PG 1) DANFS History
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