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Gunboat Photo Archive

Dover (IX 30)

Dover call sign:
Nan - Item - Roger - Sugar

ex-Wilmington (PG 8)

Call sign (1919):
George - Rush - Mike - King

ex-Wilmington (Gunboat No. 8)

Call sign (1912):
Nan - Watch - King

Campaign and Service Medals

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right

Top Row: Sampson Medal
2nd Row: Spanish Campaign Medal - Philippine Campaign Medal - World War I Victory Medal
3rd Row: American Defense Service Medal - American Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal

Wilmington Class Gunboat:

Laid down 8 October 1894 by the Newport News Shipbuilding Co., Newport News, VA

Launched 19 October 1895

Completed 29 January 1896

Commissioned USS Wilmington, Gunboat No. 8, 13 May 1897

Designated PG-8, 17 July 1920

Decommissioned 30 June 1904 at Cavite, Philippines

Recommissioned 2 April 1906

Ships Data, U.S. Naval Vessels, 1921 lists recommissioning date as 1 July 1911

Reclassified as an Unclassified Miscellaneous Auxiliary and renamed Dover (IX 30), 27 January 1941 for training Naval reserves

Decommissioned 20 December 1945

Struck from the Navy Register 8 January 1946

Sold in December 1946 to Hawley Forge and Manufacturing Co. of San Francisco, CA

Scuttled off the California coast in 1947.

Specifications:

Displacement 1,571 t.

1941 - 1,280 t.

Length 251' 10"

Length between perpendiculars 250' 9"

Beam 39' 8"

Draft 9'

Speed 15.08 kts.

Complement 212

1921 - 206

Armament: Eight 4" gun mounts and four 3-pounders

1905 - Eight 4" rapid fire mounts, four 6-pounder rapid fire mounts, four 1-pounder rapid fire mounts and four 6mm mounts

1914 - Eight 4"/40 rapid fire mounts, and four 3-pounders

World War II - One 4"/50 gun mount and five 3"/50 dual purpose mounts

Propulsion: Four Hohenstein boilers, two 934ihp vertical triple expansion steam engines, two shafts

1921 - Four Babcock and Wilcox boilers.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description	Source
Wilmington
	246k	19 October 1895 USS Wilmington (PG-8), with the USS Nashville (PG-7) immediately behind, ready for launching at Newport News, Virginia Photo by Hart, New York Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 63204	Mike Green
	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	Mike Green
	107k	Launching party for Wilmington including Miss Anne Grey, Sponsor. She was the daughter of Senator George Grey of Delaware from 18 March 1885 – 4 March 1899 Photo by Hart, New York	S. Dale Hargrave
	135k	Miss Grey christening Wilmington Photo by Hart, New York
	142k	Launching Photo by Hart, New York
USS Wilmington (Gunboat No. 8)
	132k	Post card	Darryl Baker
	65k		Robert Hurst
	37k	Line drawing	Joe Radigan
	112k	Line drawing from Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, Vol. 2, 1894. Robb Jensen collection	Robb Jensen
	81k	c. 1898 Courtesy of CDR Donald J. Robinson, MSC, USN U.S. Navy photo NH 91824	Naval Historical Center
	141k	Photo from Colliers History of the Spanish American War, published in 1898	Dan Wilmes
	126k	In Boston Harbor for a naval parade on 2 September 1898 Photo from Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection	Mike Green
	583k	Gravestone erected in an Argentine cemetery by Wilmington shipmates for Quartermaster William White, USN and Ordinary Seaman Mark Francis Dailey, USN, who died during her stay in Argentina (September 1899 - March 1900)	Alfredo Martin
	242k	c. 1906 Orinoco River, Venezuela Photo by Hart, Detroit Publishing Co. Collection of the Library of Congress photo LC-D4-9235	Robert Hurst
	131k	Christmas day 1908 Hankow, China U.S. Navy photo from the November 1918 edition of Our Navy magazine	Joe Radigan
	118k	c. 1909 Shanghai, China "The Merry Cherry Pickers"	Scot McCoy
	131k	c. 1909 Shanghai, China S/2c A. N. Everett, USN	Scot McCoy
	205k	c. 1890 - 1910 Detroit Publishing Co. photo 30890 from the Library of Congress	Michael Mohl
	121k	c. 1911 Hong Kong, China	Robert M. Cieri
	142k	c. 1911 Canton, China	Robert M. Cieri
USS Wilmington (PG 8)
	50k	c. 1930s. Moored at the foot of Randolph Street, Chicago, IL. The Naval Reserve Armory is in the background	Ken Laesser
	104k	c. 1930s In the Great Lakes	Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
	2058k	Photographed during the 1930s, while serving as a Naval Reserve training ship on the Great Lakes Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 76514	Mike Green
USS Dover (IX 30)
	172k	c. 1942	E. C. Lowrance, Jr.
	208k
	219k
	288k
	176k	15 May 1942 Lake Michigan NAVAL GUNNERS FOR MERCHANT SHIPS The sound of gunfire is echoing off Lake Michigan this summer from two Navy ships which are being used to school Navy officers and sailors who are to protect American merchant shipping on the high seas. The USS Wilmette [IX 29], flagship of the Great Lakes training ships and the USS Dover, formerly of the Atlantic Fleet, are being used for this training. Both mount four-inch naval guns, the kind that are to be used by the men when they go aboard merchant ships in the Atlantic and Pacific. Every day several gun crews--each one consists of 10 men and an officer--fire at targets which are set afloat in the lake. These gun crews are being sent to sea as quickly as they can be trained, and are a powerful defense against submarines. Photo by ACME	Tommy Trampp
	749k	'Firing Squads' for Enemy Subs Associated Press and Wide World photos from the Gravure Section of the 12 July 1942 edition of the Sunday Star, Washington, DC	Mike Mohl

Commanding Officers
01	CDR Chapman Coleman Todd, USN - USNA Class of 1866 Retired as Rear Admiral	13 May 1897 - 1899
02	CDR Ebenezer Scudder Prim, USN - USNA Class of 1868	27 November 1900
03	CDR Uriah Rose Harris, USN - Retired as Rear Admiral	8 April 1902 - 1904
04	CDR Carlos Gilman Calkin, USN - USNA Class of 1872	13 October 1904
05	CDR William Ledyard Rodgers, USN - USNA Class of 1878 Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Admiral	2 April 1906 - 11 July 1907
06	CDR William Rees Rush, USN - USNA Class of 1877	11 July 1907 - 22 July 1908
07	CDR Edward Lloyd, Jr., USN	22 July 1908
08	CDR Webster Appleton Edgar, USN	9 August 1910
09	CDR Stanford Elwood Moses, USN - USNA Class of 1892	23 September 1915 - 11 May 1916
10	CDR Francis Laird Chadwick, USN - USNA Class of 1893 Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Captain	11 May 1916 - 9 June 1917
11	LCDR Walter Ernest Whitehead, USN	26 January 1918 - 9 January 1919
12	CAPT Thomas Albert Kearney, USN - Awarded the Navy Cross (1918)	9 January 1919 - 15 May 1919
13	CDR Lloyd Stowell Shapley, USN - USNA Class of 1899	18 May 1919 - 19 November 1919
14	CDR John Barklay Rhodes, USN - USNA Class of 1907	19 November 1919 - 11 December 1920
15	CDR William Linn Culbertson, USN - USNA Class of 1905	11 December 1920
16	CDR Lawrence Penfield Treadwell, Jr., USN	26 June 1922 - October 1922
17	CDR Richard Thomas Broohead, USNRF	October 1922 - 12 January 1923
18	LCDR George Edgar Brandt, USNRF	1 December 1923
19	CAPT Anthony Francis Nicklett, USNR	1940 - 10 July 1941
20	LCDR Francis Joseph McMenamon, USNR	10 July 1941 - 15 December 1942
22	LT Raymond George Brown, USNR	15 December 1942 - 25 July 1943
23	LCDR William VanCourtland Brandt, USNR	25 July 1943
24	LT William Louis Hardy, USNR	1 June 1944 - 5 September 1945
25	LCDR Theodore Charles Merwin, USNR	5 September 1945 - 1 December 1945
26	ENS Levy J. LeBlanc, USNR	1 December 1945 - 20 December 1945

Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan

View the Wilmington (PG 8) DANFS History

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This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Tom Bateman

NavSource Online:Gunboat Photo Archive

Dover (IX 30)

ex-Wilmington (PG 8)

ex-Wilmington (Gunboat No. 8)

NavSource Online:
Gunboat Photo Archive