USS Yosemite (1892)
 The Yosemite in 1898.
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The USS Yosemite was an auxiliary cruiser of the US Navy , during the American Spanish War was used. The ship was originally on June 27, 1892 at the shipyard of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News ( US state Virginia ) under the name El Sud for the San Francisco based Southern Pacific & Golden Gate Ferries Ltd., a subsidiary the Southern Pacific Transportation , was completed as a cargo ship . In the run-up to the imminent Spanish-American war, the steamer was purchased by the United States Navy on April 6, 1898 for 575,000 US dollars (around 13.5 million US dollars according to today's value), within just seven days on the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard converted into an auxiliary cruiser and baptized with the new name Yosemite (after the national park of the same name ). The armed steamer was the first ship in the history of the United States Navy to be baptized with this name. The auxiliary cruiser finally entered service on April 13, 1898 under the command of Commander William H. Emory.
Technical data and armament
The Yosemite was 118.62 m long and 14.63 m wide. The ship had a steel hull and was measured at 4,659 GRT . The water displacement as an auxiliary cruiser , whereby in the context of the conversion the draft increased to 6.12 m, was 6,179 ts . Four coal-fired boilers and a single triple expansion machine driving a shaft enabled the Yosemite to reach a top speed of around 16 knots (around 30 km / h). Usually there was a coal supply of about 1,370 ts on board.
As part of the conversion, ten 12.7 cm L / 31 Mark I guns came on board, with four guns being housed in casemates on both sides of the ship and one gun on the forecastle and one on the aft of the superstructure on the upper deck, which means that six guns each could be brought to bear when firing a broadside . These cannons, introduced into the United States Navy in 1886, had a rate of fire of up to six rounds per minute and could fire a 22.7 kilogram grenade a maximum of approximately 14,600 m (although at that time they were not fought over such distances). The lighter armament consisted of six 5.7 cm hotchkiss cannons and two Gatling repeater guns .
During the conversion, the casemates for the side-facing guns were cut into the hull directly below the upper deck. The removed parts were attached as hinged doors so that the gun ports could be closed if necessary. To protect the machinery, 76 mm thick armor plates were also attached to the side of the hull.
Working time
After the commissioning, the Yosemite initially carried out test and training drives off the American east coast until mid-May 1898 - in the meantime the Spanish-American war had broken out on April 25 - before leaving Key West at the end of May and heading for Cuba .
Spanish-American War
From May 30, 1898, the Yosemite escorted the US troop carrier Panther , which had 677 US Marines on board, from Key West to Cuba. The troops strengthened the garrison of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base from June 3 . After the successful completion of the mission, the Yosemite was used to search for Spanish supply carriers and blockade breakers in Cuban and Puerto Rican waters.
On June 16, 1898 , the Yosemite sighted the Spanish troop transport Purissima Concepción , but did not capture it, although the transporter passed the auxiliary cruiser in the immediate vicinity. It is not known exactly why the capture was not carried out. The incident later sparked controversy, as there was speculation that Commander Emory might have been drunk and therefore did not appear on the bridge despite several calls and stayed in his cabin. Emory himself, however, wrote in his later published memoir , The Life of an American Sailor , that the weather on that day was bad and that the enemy ship could not be seen as a result. In the Yosemite logbook, however, the weather on that June 16 was described as “clear”. The incident was never finally resolved.
Twelve days later, on June 28, 1898, the auxiliary cruiser sighted the Spanish supply freighter Antonio Lopez in the afternoon hours near San Juan . The Yosemite opened fire around 5:20 p.m. and immediately scored hits on the opposing ship. Since it had 50 tons of gunpowder and 3,600 grenades on board, among other things , and there was always the risk of a devastating explosion if hit, the Spanish captain ran right under the coast to get into the area of action and thus into the protection of the cannons of the Spanish port fortifications . Here, however , the Antonio Lopez got aground. The run-up ship was fired at by the Yosemite for a while , and the auxiliary cruiser fired a total of around 250 12.7 cm shells before the Americans broke off the engagement and withdrew, also because three Spanish gunboats and the batteries at San Juan had come along with them intervened in the fight with increasing effectiveness. The Antonio Lopez was later abandoned and burned out. A large part of the cargo could, however, be recovered from other Spanish ships, which is why the Spaniards, despite the loss of the ship, were able to realize their actual intention to bring supplies to San Juan.
Until the end of the Spanish-American War in August 1898, the Yosemite carried out patrols in the Caribbean , but achieved no further successes.
In service from 1898 to 1900
After August 1898 initially deployed as a guard ship along the US east coast, the Yosemite underwent a major overhaul at the Norfolk naval base from December 1898 and remained there until April 1899.
After the decision had been made to use the Yosemite as a station and guard ship off Guam , the auxiliary cruiser moved to the Pacific between May and August 1899 after a new commander in Commander George Ide had come on board, including in June 1899 the Suez Canal was passed. The rest of the service time the ship spent off Guam, only in the spring and late summer of 1900 followed two trips to Japan and the Philippines , including Yokohama , Yokosuka , Nagasaki and Cavite (Philippines). From August 1900, the Yosemite was only used in front of Guam and served as a station ship .
Downfall
On November 13, 1900, a strong hurricane passed over the Marianas , with the Yosemite, lying in the port of Apra on Guam , being torn from its berth and pressed onto rocks near the shore. Several holes were torn in the hull of the auxiliary cruiser on the port side and below the waterline . In addition, the propeller , the rudder and the shaft were badly damaged. However, the ship did not run aground and drifted out to sea after touching the bottom.
For two days the crew of the ship fought against the adverse weather and the water ingress. Five crew members of the Yosemite (Joseph Anderson, George Aubel, William Davis, Jacob L. Mehaffey and helmsman Frank Swanson) were torn overboard in the storm and drowned. After other ships, including the carbon Tender Justin , had arrived to the crew of the Yosemite support, it became apparent that a salvage and repair with a strong list in the swell drifting ship that kn addition, because of the damaged propeller just 2 could run, could only have been accomplished with great difficulty and could hardly have been justified. On the same day, the order was therefore issued to sink the Yosemite itself. The auxiliary cruiser was abandoned in the evening hours after the Justin had recovered the Yosemite crew . As a result of the lack of leak protection and bilge measures , the ship gradually ran full of water and sank after about two hours.
The exact place where the Yosemite went down is not known today, but it is about 13 nautical miles west of Apra Harbor. A search for the wreck has not yet taken place.
Individual evidence
- ^ Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News VA ( Memento of July 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_5-31_mk1.htm
- ↑ http://www.spanamwar.com/yosemiteaction.htm
- ↑ http://www.spanamwar.com/yosemiteaction.htm
literature
- AB Fire: The Spanish-American War at Sea: Naval Action in the Atlantic . Praeger Publishers, Westport (Connecticut) 1995, ISBN 0-275-95106-5 , pp. 147-155.
- Spencer C. Tucker (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and the Philippine-American Wars. A political, social and military history. 3. Edition. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2009, ISBN 978-1-85109-951-1 .