USS Vixen (PY-4)
 The Vixen (PY-4) in 1898
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The USS Vixen (ID: PY-4) was a gunboat of the United States Navy . The ship was originally commissioned under the name Josephine as a yacht for the American entrepreneur and art collector Peter Arrell Brown Widener and was launched in June 1896 at the Crescent Shipyard in Elizabethport ( New Jersey state ). In the run-up to the impending Spanish-American conflict , the US Navy took over the ship on April 9, 1898 and two days later placed it at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard under the new name Vixen (the English name for a female fox ) as a patrol vehicle and gunboat Service. The commandant was Lieutenant Alexander Sharp.
Technology and armament
The 55.54 m long and 8.53 m wide Vixen had a steel hull and a 1,250 PSi strong triple expansion engine and a schooner - rigging , however, only rarely was used in wartime since the machinery already the ship a top speed of 16 knots allowed .
After the ship was taken over by the US Navy, the Vixen was armed with four 5.7 cm Hotchkiss cannons and four 3.7 cm Maxim Nordenfeldt automatic cannons in single formation. This armament remained unchanged until 1905, when two of the 3.7 cm cannons came off board and were replaced by two 6 mm Colt-Browning M1895 machine guns. Around 1911, the Vixen was also temporarily equipped with three 4.7 cm Hotchkiss cannons , which were gradually dismantled by 1912.
period of service
After the ship was taken over by the United States Navy and the Spanish-American War broke out , the Vixen sailed for Cuba in May 1898 and joined the American blockade fleet off Santiago de Cuba in June , where the Spanish 1st Squadron of Admiral Pascual Cervera was lying. On board were the then Colonel (and later US President) Theodore Roosevelt , who was to become known as the commander of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry (the so-called Rough Riders ) later in this war, as well as midshipman Thomas C. Hart , who later made a career as an admiral in the US Navy and who temporarily commanded the Allied ABDA fleet in Southeast Asia during World War II .
Naval battle of Santiago de Cuba
On July 3, 1898, the Vixen took part in the naval battle of Santiago de Cuba . When the Spanish fleet broke out of the port, the gunboat was about four nautical miles southwest of the port exit. Nevertheless, the Vixen did not take an active part in the fighting in the first 90 minutes, which was mostly contested by the ships of the line and armored cruisers. At around 11 a.m., the small ship briefly came into action with the heavily damaged Spanish armored cruiser Vizcaya, which was already heading towards the shore . After a brief exchange of fire, in which no hits were scored, the Spanish ship ran aground and painted the flag . Subsequently, the Vixen briefly took part in the pursuit of the fleeing armored cruiser Cristóbal Colón . After the end of the battle, the ship initially remained in Cuban waters and took over security tasks.
Period of use from 1899 to 1923
After the end of the Spanish-American War, the gunboat moved first to New York in the fall of 1898 , then to the Norfolk naval base in October . There the Vixen was temporarily placed in reserve in January 1899 . After almost three months, the gunboat was reactivated and used between March 1899 and 1906 as a post and supply ship in the Caribbean and off Cuba. Temporarily served Vixen as a tender for the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base located Monitor USS Amphitrite . During a short shipyard overhaul in 1905, two of the 3.7 cm cannons came off board and were replaced by two Colt-Browning M1895 machine guns.
Relocated to the reserve between March 1906 and December 1907, the Vixen was handed over to the New Jersey State Naval Militia as a patrol vehicle in the winter of 1907/08 and served there until 1917. This uneventful period of operation consisted mainly of patrols and security services off the east coast of the United States . Between 1917 and 1922 the Vixen was a station ship in Saint Thomas ( US Virgin Islands ), during which time she was reclassified as a Patrol Yacht with the registration PY-4 in July 1920 . On November 15, 1922, the old ship was finally decommissioned and deleted from the naval register on January 9, 1923.
Whereabouts
The exact whereabouts of the ship is only partially certain. In June 1923, the Vixen was dismantled and sold to the New York-based Fair Oaks Steamship Corporation, which used the former gunboat under the new name Tamiami Queen . Around 1924, the ship is said to have been renamed Collier County and probably carried this name into 1928. Then the trail of the old gunboat is lost. In the winter of 1928/29 the former yacht could have been identical to the small mail ship Princess Montagu , which was lost in a spring storm in March 1929 due to shipwreck. However, it is not known when a possible renaming could have taken place.
literature
- Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships , Volume VII (V - T), 1981, p. 552.