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U.S. Navy - A Brief History of Cruisers

The Cruisers

A Brief History of U.S. Navy Cruisers
Part I - The Early Years (1900 - 1905)

Sources: American Naval History, 1984
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

All images below are hyperlinked to larger images for better viewing. All images are official Navy photographs.


Picture, caption follows. Jun. 10, 1900 - Vice Adm. Sir Edward Seymour, KCB, the senior foreign officer in northern China, led a force of 2, 129 men representing eight nationalities from Tientsin to reopen communications with Peking. The expedition included 112 American seaman and Marines from the cruiser USS Newark (C 1) under Captain Bowman H. McCalla. First attacked by Boxers on June 13, the column was forced to retire four days later after pushing to within 25 miles of Peking.
Picture, caption follows. Mar. 21 - Apr. 16, 1903 - A peace-keeping force consisting of the cruisers USS Olympia (C 6), USS Raleigh (C 8), and USS San Francisco (C 5), gunboat USS Marietta (PG 15), and the transport USS Panther operated off the Honduras coast during a civil uprising. Marines landed to protect the U.S. Embassy at Puerto Cortez.
Picture, caption follows. Apr. 1-19, 1903 - Marines from the cruiser USS Atlanta landed to guard the U.S. Consulate at Santo Domingo during an insurrection in the Dominican Republic.
Picture, caption follows. Sep. 13, 1903 - When a widespread revolution broke out in Cuba following the elections of August 1906, President Roosevelt decided that the United States must intervene. On this date, a detachment of 120 bluejackets and Marines from the cruiser USS Denver (C 14) landed at the request of the Cuban governer to maintain order in Havana.
Picture, caption follows. Sep. 7-13, 1903 - USS Brooklyn (ACR 3) landed a party of Sailors and Marines at Beirut, in the Turkish province of Syria (present-day Lebanon), to protect U.S. citizens and the American University during a brief period of political demonstrations.
Picture, caption follows. Oct. 10-17, 1903 - Seaman and Marines go ashore from the cruiser USS San Francisco (C 5) to safeguard American interests amid renewed disorders in Beirut.
Picture, caption follows. Feb.11, 1904 - Insurgent forces in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, fired upon the steamer USS New York. A force of 300 bluejackets and Marines from cruisers USS Columbia (C 12) and USS Newark (C 1), commanded by LCDR James P. Parker, landed under covering fire from the USS Newark to expel the Dominican rebels from the city.
Picture, caption follows. Mar. 12, 1904 - Marines from the cruiser USS Cincinnati (C 7) helped evacuate American citizens, caught up in the Russo-Japanese War, from Seoul and Chemulpo (Inchon), Korea.
Picture, caption follows. May 30, 1904 - The bandit chieftain, Raisouli, kidnapped a naturalized American citizen, Ion Perdicaris, in Morocco. President Roosevelt informed the Moroccan government that we wanted "Perdicaris alive or Raisouli dead" and landed Captain J.T. Myers's Marine detachment from the cruiser USS Brooklyn (ACR 3) at Tangier. Shortly thereafter, Raisouli released Pedicaris.
Picture, caption follows. July 23, 1905 - The return of John Paul Jones: The body of John Paul Johns was brought ashore at Annapolis, Md., where Congress decided that it should be interred in the crypt of the Naval Academy Chapel. Jones's remains was escorted across the Atlantic by an honor squadron, commanded by Read. Adm. Charles D. Sigbee, of four cruisers, USS Brooklyn (CA 3), USS Chattanooga (C 16), USS Galveston (C 17), and USS Tacoma (C 18) - and the French cruiser Julien de la Graviere. This squadron was joined off the Nantucket Shoals by the seven battleships of Rear Admiral Robley D. Evan's North Atlantic Fleet.

Last Update: 22 June 2009