Chain of Command
In command of the USS Independence (1814).
Other Memories
She served as receiving ship at Mare Island from 1890 until decommissioned on 3 November 1912. Her name was struck from the Navy List on 3 September 1913.
The 13,680 ton armored cruiser Colorado ran ashore at Double Bluff in Puget Sound, twenty five miles north of Seattle.
Chain of Command
Under command of Captain Edmund B Underwood
Other Memories
USS Colorado
The 13,680 ton armored cruiser Colorado ran ashore at Double Bluff in Puget Sound, twenty five miles north of Seattle, at 10 o'clock on the morning of August 15 while proceeding from the Puget Sound Navy Yard to San Francisco under command of Captain Edmund B Underwood. Double Bluff, where the accident occurred is not along the Pacific shore of the State of Washington, but is a precipitous place on the southern shore of Whidby Island almost directly opposite Point No Point in the tortuous reach of water extending northward from the city of Seattle toward the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, which offers a broad roadway westward from Port Townsend to the sea. The Colorado had been undergoing her annual repairs at the Puget Sound yard, and was on her way toward San Francisco preparatory to sailing with the seven other armored cruisers of Rear Admiral Dayton's Pacific fleet for Hawaii and Samoa on August 24.
There was very little fog in the sound until Point No Point was reached. Suddenly, the forward lookout shouted an alarm, and almost instantly there came the shock of the cruiser grounding. The engines were reversed but failed to move the vessel and the accident was then reported by wireless to the Bremerton Navy Yard. The naval tug Navajo and the revenue cutter Arcata were dispatched respectively from the Bremerton yard and Port Townsend to aid the cruiser, which was ordered back to the yard for examination and repairs. The cruiser was floated late in the afternoon and upon her return to Bremerton was found to be so badly injured that she could not be repaired in time to leave San Francisco on August 24 on the Samoan voyage. A dispatch to the Navy Department from Captain John A Rodgers, commandant of the Puget Sound yard, stated that her plates were dented in three or four places on the starboard side, and the starboard docking keel was considerably damaged. The repairs which were immediately ordered are expected to require about thirty days for completion, and when completed the Colorado will resume her place in the first division of the armored cruiser fleet, with the West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. She will probably meet the other ships at Honolulu about October 1 after their return to that port from Samoa. (from a 1908 book, in the public domain).
Colorado was commissioned in 1905 as a Pennsylvania-class armored cruiser, and served during World War I as a convoy escort, (having been renamed as Pueblo to free up the name) and then later as a transport for returning American servicemen. Obsolete well before the end of the war, she was retained as a receiving ship until scrapped in 1930.
Criteria The Spanish Campaign Medal was awarded for military service in, or on the high seas en route to, any of the following countries during the dates indicated: Cuba (May 11 to July 17, 1898), Puerto Rico ... The Spanish Campaign Medal was awarded for military service in, or on the high seas en route to, any of the following countries during the dates indicated: Cuba (May 11 to July 17, 1898), Puerto Rico (July 24 to August 13, 1898) or Philippine Islands (June 30 to 16 August 16, 1898). MoreHide
Description
He served on the monitor USS Miantonomoh (BM-5) during the Spanish War.
Criteria The Spanish War Service Medal commemorates certain service during the Spanish-American War. It was awarded for military service of not less than ninety days between April 20, 1898, and April 11, 1899,... The Spanish War Service Medal commemorates certain service during the Spanish-American War. It was awarded for military service of not less than ninety days between April 20, 1898, and April 11, 1899, to servicemen who were not eligible for the Spanish Campaign Medal. The Spanish War Service Medal was originally intended for members of the National Guard mobilized during the Spanish-American War but who were not eligible for the Spanish Campaign Medal. MoreHide
Description
He served on the monitor USS Miantonomoh (BM-5) during the Spanish War.
Description The Spanish–American War (Spanish: Guerra hispano-estadounidense or Guerra hispano-americana; Filipino: Digmaang Espanyol-Amerikano) was a conflict fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. The Spanish–American War (Spanish: Guerra hispano-estadounidense or Guerra hispano-americana; Filipino: Digmaang Espanyol-Amerikano) was a conflict fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. Hostilities began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor in Cuba leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. American acquisition of Spain's Pacific possessions led to its involvement in the Philippine Revolution and ultimately in the Philippine–American War.
Revolts had been occurring for some years in Cuba against Spanish rule. The U.S. later backed these revolts upon entering the Spanish–American War. There had been war scares before, as in the Virginius Affair in 1873. In the late 1890s, US public opinion was agitated by anti-Spanish propaganda led by newspaper publishers such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst which used yellow journalism to call for war. The business community across the United States had just recovered from a deep depression, and feared that a war would reverse the gains. They lobbied vigorously against going to war.
The US Navy battleship Maine was mysteriously sunk in Havana harbor; political pressures from the Democratic Party pushed the administration of Republican President William McKinley into a war that he had wished to avoid.[9] Spain promised time and time again that it would reform, but never delivered. The United States sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it surrender control of Cuba. First Madrid declared war, and Washington then followed suit.
The main issue was Cuban independence; the ten-week war was fought in both the Caribbean and the Pacific. US naval power proved decisive, allowing expeditionary forces to disembark in Cuba against a Spanish garrison already facing nationwide Cuban insurgent attacks and further wasted by yellow fever. Numerically superior Cuban, Philippine, and US forces obtained the surrender of Santiago de Cuba and Manila despite the good performance of some Spanish infantry units and fierce fighting for positions such as San Juan Hill. Madrid sued for peace with two obsolete Spanish squadrons sunk in Santiago de Cuba and Manila Bay and a third, more modern fleet recalled home to protect the Spanish coasts.
The result was the 1898 Treaty of Paris, negotiated on terms favorable to the US which allowed it temporary control of Cuba and ceded ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine islands. The cession of the Philippines involved payment of $20 million ($575,760,000 today) to Spain by the US to cover infrastructure owned by Spain.
The defeat and collapse of the Spanish Empire was a profound shock to Spain's national psyche, and provoked a thorough philosophical and artistic revaluation of Spanish society known as the Generation of '98.[ The United States gained several island possessions spanning the globe and a rancorous new debate over the wisdom of expansionism. It was one of only five US wars (against a total of eleven sovereign states) to have been formally declared by Congress.... More
Memories Spanish-American War, 1898-1899
After the sinking of armored cruiser Maine in Havana harbor 15 FebruaSpanish-American War, 1898-1899
After the sinking of armored cruiser Maine in Havana harbor 15 February 1898, Miantonomoh recommissioned 10 March 1898, Captain Mortimer L. Johnson in command. On 21 April, the United States and Spain severed diplomatic ties, leading to the Spanish-American War. The following day, President William McKinley ordered Rear Admiral William T. Sampson to blockade ports on the northern coast of Cuba.
After fitting out at Charleston, S.C., Miantonomoh joined the blockading force 5 May to serve until the blockade was lifted 14 August, the day after hostilities ceased. Miantonomoh returned to Charleston 29 August and to Philadelphia 1 October. She decommissioned at League Island 8 March 1899.... More
In command of the USS Independence (1814).
She served as receiving ship at Mare Island from 1890 until decommissioned on 3 November 1912. Her name was struck from the Navy List on 3 September 1913.