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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6), 1894-1921
USS Castine, the second of two 1177-ton Machias
class gunboats built at Bath, Maine, was launched in May 1892.
However, stability problems necessitated lengthening the ship, and
she was not placed in commission until October 1894. Between February
and October 1895 she crossed the Atlantic, passed through the
Mediterranean Sea and Suez Canal and cruised around Africa to
Brazil. For the next three years Castine operated in South
American waters and in the West Indies, including service off
Cuba during the Spanish-American
War.
In December 1898, some four months after the end of that conflict,
Castine began the long voyage to the Far East, again transiting
the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal. The gunboat operated in
Philippines, and briefly off China, until mid-1901, when she retraced
her route back through Suez to return to the U.S. East Coast.
Laid up between October 1901 and November 1903, Castine
then had an active tour of duty off South America, in the Mediterranean
and in the Caribbean that lasted until September 1905. Following
another three years out of commission, in October 1908 she commenced
service as a submarine tender for the Atlantic Fleet. From mid-1913
until mid-1917 Castine again operated in the Caribbean
area. She barely avoided disaster on 29 August 1916, when a powerful
tsunami struck
her anchorage off Santo Domingo. With the greatest difficulty
the little gunboat fought her way through towering waves to the
relative safety of the open sea.
The First World War sent Castine back across the Atlantic
to Gibraltar, where she was employed on patrol work from August
1917 until late in 1918. After brief service in the Gulf of Mexico
in the first part of 1919, USS Castine was decommissioned
at New Orleans, Louisiana, in August 1919. She was sold two years
later.
This page features, and provides links to, all the views
we have concerning USS Castine (Gunboat # 6).
For more images related to this ship, see:
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6) --
Part II.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 2087
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6)
At anchor.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 555 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 58098
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6)
Photograph autographed by Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN,
circa the later 1950s or early 1960s. He served in Castine
while commanding the Atlantic Fleet Submarine Flotilla between
20 May 1912 and 30 March 1913.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 545 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 99961
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6)
Underway in harbor in 1898, during or shortly after the Spanish-American
War.
Copied from "The New Navy of the United States", by
N.L. Stebbins, (New York, 1912).
Donation of David Shadell, 1987.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 65KB; 740 x 495 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 67522
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6)
Photographed in a harbor.
Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 475 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 101247-KN (color)
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6)
Color-tinted postal card of a photograph taken circa 1905 at
Pensacola, Florida, by Enrique Muller. It was published by the
American News Company, of New York City.
Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (Retired), 1983
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 485 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 94009
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6)
In drydock at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, circa
1905-1908, while out of commission. USS Topeka (1898-1930),
also out of commission, is astern of Castine.
Collection of Harry Gilfillan.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 82KB; 520 x 765 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 68764
Key West Naval Station, Florida
Photographed in 1919, with camouflage patterns on some buildings.
Ships at piers are USS Castine (Gunboat # 6), at left,
and USS Isabel (SP-521) at right.
Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, 1969.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 105KB; 740 x 570 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 102764
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6)
At the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, in February 1911.
Three submarines are tied up to her starboard side and USS Severn
(1900-1916, ex-Chesapeake) is between Castine and
the wharf.
Collection of Chief Boatswain's Mate John E. Lynch, USN. Donated
by his son, Robert J. Lynch, in April 2000.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 455 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 101130
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6)
Among the breakers off Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, while
escaping from the tidal waves that wrecked USS Memphis
(Armored Cruiser # 10), 29 August 1916.
From the album of Francis Sargent; Courtesy of Commander John
Condon, 1986.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 48KB; 740 x 450 pixels |
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The following photographs show either USS Castine
or her sister ship, USS Machias (Gunboat # 5):
Photo #: NH 78205
Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine
View of the Yard's waterfront during the 1890s, with a gunboat
(either Machias, Gunboat # 5, or Castine, Gunboat
# 6) alongside.
This photograph, published on a postal card, was taken before
the ships were lengthened amidships.
Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (Medical Service
Corps), 1973.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 465 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 66577
USS Machias (Gunboat # 5)
or
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6)
In a harbor at the time of the Spanish-American War, 1898.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 90KB; 740 x 595 pixels |
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For more images related to this ship, see:
USS Castine (Gunboat # 6) --
Part II.
Return to Naval
Historical Center home page.
Page made 24 September 1998
Revised and expanded 30 January 2005
New image added 14 March 2005