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Gunboat Photo Archive

Nashville (PG 7)



Call sign (1919):
George - Quack - Vice - Sail

Nashville (Gunboat No. 7)



Call sign (1909):
Nan - King - Yoke


Nashville served both the U. S. Navy and the Illinois Naval Militia.

Nashville Class Gunboat:

  • The first Nashville was laid down 9 August 1894 at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, VA
  • Launched 19 October 1895
  • Completed 22 January 1896
  • Commissioned USS Nashville (Gunboat No. 7), 19 August 1897
  • Decommissioned 30 June 1904 at Boston Navy Yard, Boston MA
  • Recommissioned 8 August 1905
  • Decommissioned 23 July 1906
  • Assigned to the Illinois Naval Militia 29 April 1909 at Chicago, Illinois
  • Withdrawn in July 1911
  • Recommissioned 24 July 1911 at Boston Navy Yard
  • Decommissioned 29 October 1918 at Charleston Navy Yard, Charleston, SC
  • Designated PG-7, 17 July 1920
  • Sold 20 October 1921 to J. L. Bernard and Co. of Washington, DC for the Richmond Cedar Works
  • Converted to a barge and renamed Richmond Cedar Works No. 4
  • Taken out of service in 1954
  • Scrapped in 1957.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,190 t.
    1914 - 1,371 t.
  • Length 233' 8"
  • Beam 38' 1"
  • Draft 11'
  • Speed 16.3 kts.
  • Complement 176
    1918 - 194
  • Armament: Eight 4"/40 gun mounts, four 6-pounders and two 1-pounders
    1905 - Eight 4" rapid fire mounts, four 6-pounder rapid fire mounts, two 1-pounder rapid fire mounts and two 6mm mounts
    1911 - Eight 4"/40 rapid fire mounts, two 6-pounder rapid fire mounts, two 3-pounder rapid fire mounts and two 1-pounder rapid fire mounts
    1914 - Eight 4"/40 rapid fire mounts, four 6-pounder rapid fire mounts and two 1-pounder rapid fire mounts
  • Propulsion: Two Scotch and Yarrow boilers, two 1,268ihp vertical quadruple-expansion engines, two shafts
    1910 - Four Mosher boilers
    1911 - Six Mosher boilers
    1918 - Six Bureau modified Thornycroft boilers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Nashville
    Nashville 103k Line drawing from Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, Vol. 2, 1894. Collection of Robb Jensen Robb Jensen
    Nashville 195k 19 October 1895
    Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. photo    		 Ron Reeves
    Nashville 246k 19 October 1895
    USS Wilmington (Gunboat No.8), with the Nashville immediately behind, ready for launching at Newport News, Virginia
    Photo by Hart, New York
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 63204    		 Mike Green
    Nashville 235k 19 October 1895
    USS Nashville (PG-7) ready for launching at Newport News, Virginia on October 19, 1895. Just ahead of her on the building way is USS Wilmington (PG-8), which was also launched on that day. Under construction at right is USS Helena (PG-9)
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 45653
    Nashville 114k The launching party for the Nashville, including sponsor Miss Emma Thompson. The man in the top hat on the right is Navy Secretary Hilary A. Herbert
    Photo by Hart, New York    		 S. Dale Hargrave
    Nashville 109k Miss Emma Thompson, christening Nashville
    Photo by Detroit Photographic Co.
    Nashville 145k Sliding down the ways into the James River. She was the first navy contract awarded to the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company
    Photo by Hart, New York
    USS Nashville (Gunboat No. 7)
    Nashville 72k Robert Hurst
    Nashville 80k David Buell
    Nashville 162k Jim Kurrasch, Battleship Iowa, Pacific Battleship Center
    Photo added 25 July 2019
    Nashville 80k Original photo: 1 January 1898
    Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, VA
    U.S. Navy photo NH 63415
    Replacement photo: 8 January 1898    		 Original photo: Naval Historical Center
    Replacement photo: S. Dale Hargrave
    Nashville 214k 22 April 1898
    Photo from Colliers History of the Spanish American War, published immediately after the war    		 Dan Wilmes
    Nashville 458k Front page of the 23 April 1898 edition of The Call, San Francisco, CA from the Library of Congress Mike Mohl
    Nashville 263k c. May 1899
    Spanish-American navy-issued hardtack biscuit with manuscript annotations dated. Handwriting upon a piece of hardtack biscuit must have taken some skill and then have it encased for protection. The back of the case has initials T.W.H    		 Tommy Trampp
    Nashville 237k
    Nashville 127k 26 September 1899
    Anchored off Cuba
    Historic New England Nathaniel L. Stebbins photographic collection, Photo No. PC047.02.5890.10321    		 Mike Green
    Nashville 127k c. Early 1900's
    On one of the Great Lakes. Nashville's career included the first to take a prize ship in the Spanish-American War, and the first American warship, sent by Teddy Roosevelt, to arrive at Panama in support of the "Revolt" in November 1903
    A "Pesha" photo, a company that operated in the Great Lakes area during the early 1900's. It is printed on Kodak Velox paper, a Kodak product not available after about 1919
    From the collection of Chuk Munson    		 Chuk Munson
    Nashville 94k Photo by staff photographer C. E. Waterman from the July 1904 edition of Army and Navy Illustrated Ron Reeves
    Nashville 121k 3 May 1908
    Courtesy Rear Admiral Ammen Farenholt, MC, USN, collection 1933
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 431    		 Mike Green
    Nashville 78k Photo by Rau from the 1914 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships Robert Hurst
    Nashville 127k At Onekama, Michigan, circa 1910 while assigned to the Illinois Naval Militia
    Courtesy of Mr. James Brinkman, Traverse City, Michigan, 1971
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 73677    		 Mike Green
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR Washburn Maynard, USN - USNA Class of 186610 August 1897
    02CDR Raymond Perry Rogers, USN - USNA Class of 18689 July 1899
    03CDR Nathan Errick Niles, USN - USNA Class of 18686 September 1900
    04CDR John Hubbard, USN - Retired as Rear Admiral14 February 1903
    05LCDR Horace Mark Witzel, USN - USNA Class of 187727 May 1904 - 30 June 1904
    06LCDR Benjamin Warner Wells, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 188723 July 1905 - 8 August 1905
    07CDR Washington Irving Chambers, USN - USNA Class of 18768 August 1905 - 23 July 1906
    08CDR Charles Monod McCormick, USN - USNA Class of 18855 September 1907
    09CDR Casey Bruce Morgan, USN - USNA Class of 1888
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		24 December 1910
    10CDR William Dugald McDougall, USN1 October 1912
    11CDR Louis McCoy Nulton, USN - USNA Class of 1889
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		13 August 1913
    12CDR Percy Napier Olmstead, USN - USNA Class of 189310 October 1914
    13LT Paul Earnest Speicher, USN - USNA Class of 190820 April 1916 - 15 May 1916
    14CDR Harry Ervin Yarnell, USN - USNA Class of 1897
    Retired as Admiral    		15 May 1916 - 21 October 1917
    15CDR James Patrick Lannon, USN - USNA Class of 1902
    		21 October 1917 - 29 October 1918
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Nashville (PG-7)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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