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Gunboat Photo Archive

Yorktown (PG 1)
ex-Gunboat No. 1

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 17 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-carronade 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 (1914 - Four Marine locomotive boilers), two 1,696ihp horizontal triple-expansion engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Yorktown 615k Line drawing Tommy Trampp
    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 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 270k Yorktown's figurehead taken at Mare Island in 1903.
    U.S. Navy photo PG 1 001-1903
    Yorktown 104k Boardside 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 - 8 October 1891
    02CDR Robley D. Evans, USN8 October 1891
    ??CDR Charles S. Sperry, USN17 November 1898
    07CDR Richard T. Mulligan, USN1 October 1906
    08CDR Harry Ashby Field, USN1908
    09CDR Edwin Anderson, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 1882
    Awarded the Medal of Honor (1914) and the Distinguished Service Medal
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		1910
    11LCDR Thomas Washington, USNRetired as Rear AdmiralJanuary 1912 - 15 July 1912
    12CDR George B. Bradshaw, USN15 July 1912 - 1 April 1913
    13CDR William Henry Allen, USN - Retired as Rear Admiral20 April 1917 - 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
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Ship Type Index Back to the Patrol Gunboat (PG) Photo Index
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Joe Radigan
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