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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 63591:  USS Minneapolis at anchor, 1898

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Minneapolis (Cruiser # 13, later CA-17), 1894-1921

USS Minneapolis, a 7375-ton protected cruiser built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in December 1894. Her first year's service was off the U.S. east coast and in the West Indies. Assigned to the European Squadron in late November 1895, she operated in the Mediterranean until May 1896 and then spent a month in Russia's Baltic waters representing the U.S. Navy during the coronation of Czar Nicholas II. Thereafter, Minneapolis visited other ports from northern Europe to Turkey. The cruiser was placed in reserve immediately after her return to the United states in July 1897 but returned to active service shortly before the beginning of the Spanish-American War. During April and May 1898 Minneapolis cruised in the West Indies, searching for the squadron dispatched from Spain as part of that nation's attempts to defend Cuba. Upon the conclusion of the war in August 1898, she was again placed in reserve at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Minneapolis, whose powerful engines made her an expensive ship to run, was mainly in reserve from 1898 to 1917. However, she was commissioned as receiving ship at Philadelphia in 1902-1903 and began three years' of seagoing work in September 1903. Following operations in the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico, from July to December 1905 Minneapolis cruised in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. Among her assignments was participation in an expedition to gather scientific information during a solar eclipse. In April and May 1906 she was at Annapolis, Maryland, to welcome the squadron bringing the body of John Paul Jones back to the United States. Employed on training duty for much of the rest of the year, Minneapolis decommissioned in November 1906 and was laid up at Philadelphia for more than a decade.

Recommissioned for World War I service early in July 1917, Minneapolis operated between the Panama Canal Zone and Nova Scotia until February 1918, when she began escorting convoys in the North Atlantic. In February 1919, nearly three months after the Armistice ended First World War combat, she arrived in San Diego, California, for a tour as a flagship on the Pacific Station. Redesignated CA-17 in July 1920, USS Minneapolis was decommissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard, California, in March 1921 and sold for scrapping in August of that year.

This page features selected views related to USS Minneapolis (Cruiser # 13, later CA-17).


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 46173

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

On builder's trials in 1894.
She is flying the flag of her builder, William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 570 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 63591

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

Photographed while at anchor, 1898.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 640 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 46172

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

Photographed circa August 1898 by C.E. Bolles, Brooklyn, New York.
USS Columbia (Cruiser # 12) is in the right distance.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 570 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 100346

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

At anchor in 1898, with USS Texas coaling in the left distance.
The original photograph was published on a stereograph card by J.F. Jarvis, Washington, D.C., 1898.
Note Minneapolis' bow decoration, anchor and anchor chain.

Donation of Louis Smaus, 1985

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 127KB; 645 x 675 pixels

A stereo pair version of this image is available as Photo # NH 100346-A

Online Image of stereo pair: 75KB; 675 x 355 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 46176

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

Photographed in May 1904.

Courtesy of Howard I. Chapelle, Smithsonian Institution.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 46188

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

Photographed circa 1918.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 440 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 46189

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

In drydock, receiving a mine defense installation (probably a paravane skeg), 1918.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 106KB; 740 x 460 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 46198

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

Painted in "dazzle" camouflage, 1918.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 475 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 89084

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

Crewmen on the ship's fore deck in 1898.
Photographed and published on a stereograph card by B.W. Kilburn, Littleton, New Hampshire, in 1898.
Note Minneapolis' armored conning tower, located under her wooden pilothouse.

Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN(MSC), 1979

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 116KB; 645 x 675 pixels

A stereo pair version of this image is available as Photo # NH 89084-A

Online Image of stereo pair: 72KB; 675 x 355 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 85295

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

Ship's Midshipmen posed on deck with a Warrant Officer, 1898. Published on a stereograph card by J.F. Jarvis, Washington, D.C., in 1898.

Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN(MSC), 1977

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 109KB; 640 x 675 pixels

A stereo pair version of this image is available as Photo # NH 85295-A

Online Image of stereo pair: 75KB; 675 x 350 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 46193

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

View looking aft, during convoy escort operations in 1918. Extra coal, to increase her steaming range, is stowed in bags on deck.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 64KB; 430 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 46179

USS Minneapolis
(Cruiser # 13)

Ship's Surgeon and Hospital Corpsmen pose with her Commanding Officer, Captain Rufus Z. Johnston, in 1918.
Captain Johnston is seated in right center.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 375 pixels

 


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 6 October 1998
Revised and expanded 19 October 2002