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Photo # NH 101247-KN:  USS Castine at Pensacola, Florida, circa 1905.

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.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    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

     
    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

     
    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

     
    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

     
    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

     
    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

     
    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

     
    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

     
    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

     


    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

     
    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

     


    For more images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Castine (Gunboat # 6) -- Part II.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 24 September 1998
    Revised and expanded 30 January 2005
    New image added 14 March 2005