USS Yale, USS Harrisburg (ID No. 1663)

Figure 1:  SS City of Paris (British Passenger Liner built in 1889) at anchor, circa the late 1880s or the early 1890s. This ship, a trans-Atlantic Blue Ribband winner when new, was transferred to American registry and renamed Paris in 1893. She served as USS Yale in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Rebuilt and renamed Philadelphia in 1901, she again served in the Navy from 1918 to 1919 as USS Harrisburg (ID No.1663). US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 2:  USS Yale in Cuban waters in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. This ship also served from 1918 to 1919 as USS Harrisburg (ID No. 1663). Courtesy of Alfred Cellier, 1977. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 3:  USS Yale photographed while serving as an auxiliary cruiser with the US Navy during the Spanish-American War in 1898. This ship also served from 1918 to 1919 as USS Harrisburg (ID No. 1663). US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.   

Figure 4:  West Indies Naval Campaign Medal, 1898 (also known as the "Sampson Medal"). This medal was awarded to a crewmember of USS Yale for service during the attack on San Juan, Puerto Rico, on 10 May 1898. The medal, authorized on 3 March 1901, features a bust of Rear Admiral William T. Sampson on its obverse. The reverse, with a Navy officer, sailor and marine, has a block identifying the action for which the medal was awarded. The bar on the ribbon identifies the recipient's ship. The ribbon is red, blue and red in three vertical stripes of equal width. The medal's obverse was designed by Charles E. Barber; the reverse by George T. Morgan. Photograph provided by the Chief of Naval Personnel. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 5: SS Philadelphia (American Passenger Liner) probably photographed prior to World War I. This ship served as USS Harrisburg (ID No. 1663) from 1918 to 1919. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Carl T. Osburn. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 6:  SS Philadelphia (American Passenger Liner) underway in harbor prior to World War I. Previously named City of Paris, and Paris, this ship served two times in the US Navy: as USS Yale in 1898 and as USS Harrisburg (ID No. 1663) from 1918 to 1919. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.  

Figure 7: SS Philadelphia (American Passenger Liner) painted in camouflage in 1917 while operating as a troop transport. This ship served as USS Harrisburg (ID No. 1663) from 1918 to 1919. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.  

Figure 8:  SS Philadelphia (American Passenger Liner) Navy Armed Guard gun crew exercising with a 4-inch gun mounted on board the ship, June 1917. The stern of another armed merchantman is in the background. Philadelphia served as USS Harrisburg (ID No.1663) from 1918 to 1919. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 9:  USS Harrisburg (ID No. 1663) in Brest harbor, France, 1918, with a steam lighter alongside. Photographed from the waterfront at the US Naval Air Station, Brest. Absence of a mainmast amidships and a camouflage pattern differing from that on her sister, USS Plattsburg (ID No. 1645) strongly indicates that this ship is Harrisburg. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 10:  USS Harrisburg (ID No. 1663) moored in port with a barge alongside, circa 1918. Note her pattern camouflage. The original image was printed on postal card ("AZO") stock. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2006. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.   

Figure 11: USS Harrisburg (ID No.1663). Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken in New York Harbor while the ship was engaged in transporting US servicemen home from France, circa 1919. The tug Columbia is in the right foreground. Courtesy of Alfred Cellier, 1977. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 12:  SS Philadelphia (American Passenger Liner, originally the British SS City of Paris built in 1889) at Naples, Italy, in July 1922.This ship served as USS Yale in 1898 and as USS Harrisburg (ID No. 1663) from 1918 to1919. At the time this photograph was taken, Philadelphia was under Italian ownership. She was scrapped in 1923. From the collection of Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, USN. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.  

 

The 10,499-ton passenger liner City of Paris was built by J & G Thompson at Glasgow, Scotland, in 1889 and soon began a series of record trans-Atlantic trips, earning her the coveted “Blue Ribband” prize for fast passenger service. The ship was transferred to an American shipping firm in 1893 and renamed Paris, but remained active on the passenger route between the United States and England. After the start of the Spanish-American War, the ship was acquired by the US Navy on 27 April 1898 under charter from the International Navigation Company. She was renamed USS Yale and was commissioned on 2 May 1898 as an “auxiliary cruiser.” She was approximately 527 feet long and 63 feet wide, had a top speed of 21 knots, and had a crew of 436 officers and men. An auxiliary cruiser was basically a civilian steamship with a few guns bolted onto its deck. In Yale’s case, she was armed with four 6-pounders and four 3-pounders.

On the same day she was commissioned, Yale put to sea from New York and steamed to Puerto Rico for patrol duty and to assist in locating Admiral Cervera’s Spanish fleet. On 8 May 1898, two days after her arrival off the coast of Puerto Rico, Yale captured the Spanish cargo ship Rita. A prize crew was put on board the Spanish ship and Rita was sent to Charleston, South Carolina, until the war ended. The next day, Yale encountered an armed Spanish transport off San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Spanish ship fired a few shots at Yale. The auxiliary cruiser quickly realized that her armament was greatly inferior to the guns possessed by the enemy ship, so Yale was forced to retreat from the area. Yale returned to San Juan the following day and a Spanish shore battery fired two shots at her, missing by a wide mark.

Later in May of 1898, Yale patrolled off the coasts of Haiti, Santiago de Cuba, and Jamaica. In June and July, the ship cruised between the United States and the Caribbean. In August, Yale transported American troops home from Cuba. USS Yale was decommissioned in September 1898 and was returned to her owners.

After returning to civilian commercial service, the ship was renamed Paris. She resumed trans-Atlantic voyages, but on 21 May 1899 the ship ran aground on some rocks off the western coast of Great Britain. The ship was refloated after a major salvage effort and was towed to Belfast, Ireland, to be rebuilt. After receiving new engines and having her triple smokestacks replaced by a pair of taller ones, the ship was renamed Philadelphia in 1901 and resumed north Atlantic passenger service.

After the United States entered World War I in 1917, Philadelphia was used as a transport, carrying American troops to Europe. The US Navy officially acquired the ship in 1918 and placed her in commission on 29 May as USS Harrisburg (ID No. 1663). As a military troop transport for the US Navy, Harrisburg was armed with two 6-inch guns, two 4-inch guns, and two 1-pounders. For the rest of the war, Harrisburg carried troops to Europe, completing four voyages to England and France before the Armistice brought an end to the conflict on 11 November 1918. After that, the ship made six more trips carrying American troops back to the United States from France.

USS Harrisburg was decommissioned at Hoboken, New Jersey, on 25 September 1919 and returned to her former owners, the American Line, for passenger service. The ship also reverted back her old name, Philadelphia. By now quite old and wearing out, Philadelphia was sold to the New York-Naples Steamship Company in 1922, which planned to use her in the Mediterranean. But financial problems forced Philadelphia to remain docked at Naples, Italy, where she stayed until sold for scrapping in 1923. After 34 years of service and fighting in two wars, this amazing ship ended her career as it began, as a civilian ocean liner.

HMS Black Prince

Figure 1:  HMS Black Prince at anchor with a steam launch alongside, circa the 1880s. Note the sheet anchor amidships, just below the forward funnel, and this ship's distinctive 15-foot figurehead. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 2:  HMS Black Prince at anchor with a steam launch alongside, circa the 1880s. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image. 

Figure 3:  Line engraving of HMS Black Prince published in Harper's Weekly, 1866. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 4:  "Jubilee" Fleet Review at Portsmouth, England, 23 July 1887. British warships anchored off Portsmouth, England, during the naval review held in honor of Queen Victoria's 50th year on the throne. Identifiable ships (all dressed with flags) include (from left to right): HMS Minotaur (with five masts); HMS Agincourt (with five masts); HMS Glatton (right center, in middle distance); HMS Black Prince (behind Glatton); and HMS Prince Albert (to the right of Glatton). A small yacht is steaming by in the right foreground. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.   

 

 

Figure 5:  "Jubilee" Fleet Review at Portsmouth, England, 23 July 1887. British warships firing salutes while anchored off Portsmouth, England, during the naval review held in honor of Queen Victoria's 50th year on the throne. Identifiable ships (all dressed with flags) include: HMS Minotaur (extreme left); HMS Agincourt (with five masts, in left distance); HMS Glatton (left center); HMS Black Prince (center, with three masts); and HMS Prince Albert (right center, nearest to camera). US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 6:  Original caption on this photograph was: “H M iron single screw battleship (later cruiser) H.M.S. Black Prince,” launched at Glasgow, Scotland, in 1861 and scrapped in 1923. Masts manned and flying flags as per a naval review prior to 1903. Photograph is from the book The Royal Navy : A History from the Earliest Times to the Present, Volume 7, by William Laird Clowes, published 1903 by S. Low, Marston and Company. London, England. Click on photograph for larger image.

 

Figure 7:  HMS Black Prince when she was used as a training ship in Queenstown Harbor, Ireland, 1898. Royal Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.

Figure 8: Officers of HMS Black Prince in 1898. Royal Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image. 

Figure 9:  The crew of HMS Black Prince in 1898. Royal Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image. 

Figure 10:  Sail instruction on board HMS Black Prince when she was used as a training ship, circa 1898. Royal Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image. 


Built by Robert Napier & Sons at Glasgow, Scotland, the 9,200-ton HMS Black Prince was an ironclad frigate that was completed on 27 September 1862. She was the third ship in the Royal Navy to bear that name and was the second ocean-going, iron-hulled, armored warship, following her sister ship, HMS Warrior. For a brief period in naval history, the two Warrior class ironclads were the most powerful warships in the world, their armor being nearly impregnable to the naval guns that existed at that time.  Black Prince was approximately 420 feet long and 58 feet wide and had a crew of 707 officers and men. The ship was armed with 26 smoothbore muzzle-loading 68-pounder guns, 10 rifled breech-loading 110-pounder guns, and four rifled breech loading 40-pounder guns. Black Prince was equipped with sails and one two-cylinder steam engine that produced 5,772 horsepower, giving the ship a top speed of 13.6 knots under steam power alone. Both Black Prince and Warrior were also rigged with 48,400 square feet of sail. Black Prince, though, could only do 11 knots under sail, two knots slower than Warrior. 

After entering service, Black Prince was assigned to the Royal Navy’s English Channel Fleet until 1866, then spent a year as flagship off the coast of Ireland. The ship was overhauled and re-armed from 1867 to 1868 and then became the guard ship on the Clyde River. The routine of that duty was interrupted in 1869, when she and her sister ship, HMS Warrior, towed a large floating dry dock from the Azores to Bermuda. 

Black Prince was again overhauled from 1874 to 1875 and then rejoined the Channel Fleet as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir John Dalrymple-Hay, second-in-command of the Royal Navy. In 1878, Captain H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh took command of Black Prince and the ship crossed the Atlantic to participate in the installation of a new Governor General of Canada. After returning to England, Black Prince was placed in reserve at Devonport and re-classified as an armored cruiser. The ship was re-activated periodically to participate in annual fleet exercises. 

Unfortunately, rapid advances in naval armament and technology, as well as the manufacture of new steel warships, soon made ironclads like Black Prince and Warrior obsolete. No longer capable of confronting steel battleships, Black Prince became a harbor training ship in 1896, stationed at Queenstown, Ireland. She was re-named Emerald in 1903. In 1910, the ship was taken to Plymouth for use as a training ship and was re-named Impregnable III. The old ship was eventually sold for scrapping in 1923, after a career spanning an amazing 61 years. 

Ships like Black Prince and Warrior bridged the gap between wooden warships and the new steel battleships that were built towards the end of the nineteenth century. For a limited period in naval history, ironclads were the most powerful warships in the world.