USS Wilmington (PG-8) - Post Spanish-American War

Post Spanish-American War

Late in the summer, the gunboat headed home and was drydocked at Boston from 24 September to 3 October. Following repairs, the ship departed the Massachusetts coast on 20 October, bound, via Charleston, South Carolina, for Norfolk. Arriving at Hampton Roads on 31 October, the ship put into the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on the following day for further repairs, overhaul, and preparation for foreign service.

With the reestablishment of the South Atlantic Squadron, Wilmington got underway on Christmas Eve and set her course for Puerto Rico. She arrived at San Juan on 30 December 1898 but resumed her voyage south on 2 January 1899 and proceeded via Castries, Saint Lucia, to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where she made port on 15 January.

Six days later, the gunboat left Trinidad behind and pointed her straight stem toward Venezuela. On the 23d, the ship arrived off Barima Point and stood up the Santa Catalina River, which led to the main branch of the Orinoco. After a brief stop at the town of Las Tablas, Wilmington put into Ciudad Bolívar on the 24th where the mayor, the American consul, and a number of city officials came on board the ship for a visit. Diplomatic affairs occupied the officers, with the commanding officer vsiting the provincial governor and collector of customs. The ship was "full-dressed" with flags and appropriate ceremonial trappings on 28 January when she welcomed the citizens of the city on board. Two days later, the gunboat departed Ciudad Bolívar to return to Port-of-Spain.

She was based at Trinidad through February and into March. During this time, she visited Guanta in northern Venezuela; Georgetown, British Guiana; and proceeded up the Surinam River to Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana.

Departing Paramaribo on 6 March, she commenced the initial leg of her cruise up the Amazon River. Navigable for nearly 2,300 miles (3,700 km) of its 3,200-mile (5,100 km) length during the rainy season, the Amazon and its verdant banks presented the ship's company with interesting and unusual flora and fauna as she proceeded upriver. Calling at Pará and Manaus, Brazil, en route, the ship arrived at the Peruvian border at Leticia, Peru, on 11 April. Heaving-to, the gunboat dropped anchor off Leticia to secure permission from Peruvian authorities to proceed further up the Amazon. With permission granted, Wilmington again got underway and arrived at Iquitos on 13 April. While numerous official calls were exchanged during the visit, the gunboat also acquired a small menagerie: three monkeys and one tiger cat which were presented to the ship by the Peruvians.

On 18 April, the gunboat departed Iquitos, headed back down stream, and reached Rio de Janeiro on 28 May, completing a 4,600-mile (7,400 km) round-trip voyage on the Amazon. On 6 June, Wilmington entered the Brazilian government drydock at Rio de Janeiro for routine bottom cleaning and remained there until 4 July when she got underway and cruised south along the coast visiting Brazilian and Uruguayan ports. She arrived at Montevideo on 16 July and spent one month operating out of that port.

On 17 August, the ship departed Montevideo. However, at 1750 the following day, the port propeller shaft failed, resulting in a change of course back to Montevideo. After remaining in the Uruguayan port for the days following her arrival on 22 August, she departed on 3 September, steaming by her starboard engine only, for Buenos Aires.

Arriving on 4 September, Wilmington broke the Argentine flag at the main and her saluting guns barked out a 21-gun salute to the Argentine nation as the gunboat entered port. After the usual boarding calls and shore visits by the American officers to the American charge d'affairs and consul, the gunboat entered the drydock at Buenos Aires on 8 September.

Unshipping the port propeller shaft and landing the propeller and a section of the shaft on 16 September, the ship left the drydock the following day with the assistance of two tugs and proceeded to basin number 4 at the Brazilian navy yard.

Wilmington remained incapacitated at the basin until 18 January 1900, when she was moved to Ensenada, Argentina. Eleven days later, cruiser Chicago passed a towline to the gunboat, and the two ships set out for Montevideo. On 9 February, steamship Corunda arrived with new shafts from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Subsequently, the gunboat returned to Buenos Aires, under tow from cruiser Montgomery, and entered drydock on 3 March 1900, nearly six months after having first been crippled by the damaged propeller shaft.

Once the repairs were finally corrected after dockyard overhaul and a trial period, Wilmington continued cruising on the South American station through the summer and early fall of 1900. While the ship was en route to Rio de Janeiro on 10 May 1900, her inclinometer recorded 45-degree rolls in each direction while traversing heavy, choppy seas. On 16 October 1900, the ship departed Pernambuco, Brazil, bound for the Far East.

Arriving at Gibraltar on 3 November, the ship pushed on across the Mediterranean and transited the Suez Canal early in December, arriving at Port Said on the 4th. On 21 January 1901, the gunboat made port at Manila, in the Philippines, to commence her Asiatic service.

Departing from Cavite on 10 May, the ship headed for the China coast and called at Hong Kong on the 13th. Still nominally attached to the South Atlantic Fleet, Wilmington served in Chinese waters through 1904 on routine cruises showing the stars and stripes along the China coast at ports such as Shantou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. On 30 June 1904, the ship was decommissioned at Cavite.

On 2 April 1906, the ship was recommissioned there, with Comdr. William L. Rodgers in command. For the next two years, the ship served off the China coast, carrying out her routine cruising and "showing the flag." On 17 December 1908, the gunboat commenced her river service, on the Yangtze River as far as Hankou, with the Yangtze Patrol. Ordinary activities included the usual calls and port visits to such places as Hong Kong, Canton, and Swatow. She conducted target practice after constructing her own target rafts and laying out a firing area. On one occasion, Chinese fishermen decided that the raft presented a good perch from which to fish. Repeated attempts by the gun-boaters to shoo away the fishermen only ended in frustration. Finally, as the ship steamed slowly toward the area, she fired a few blank rounds purposely "over", and the squatters promptly abandoned their erstwhile fishing vantage point.

After repairs while stationed at Hong Kong from 30 June 1912 to 30 June 1914, the ship resumed her routine cruises, attached to the Far Eastern Squadron, Asiatic Fleet, and continued such duty for the next five years.