Figure 1: USS Nashville (PG-7) at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, 8 January 1898. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Nashville (PG-7) between 1895 and 1901, by Edward H. Hart. From the Detroit Publishing Company Collection of the Library of Congress. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Nashville (PG-7), date and place unknown. Courtesy David Buell. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Nashville (PG-7) circa the early 1900's on one of the Great Lakes. Nashville was the first ship to capture a prize during the Spanish-American War and it was the first American warship sent by Teddy Roosevelt to arrive off Panama in support of the revolt in November 1903, which paved the way for the creation of the Panama Canal. From the collection of C. Munson. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Nashville (PG-7) halftone reproduction of a photograph, published in "Deeds of Valor," Volume II, page 361, by the Perrien-Keydel Company, Detroit, 1907. The image shows crewmembers who participated in the cable cutting operation at Cienfuegos, Cuba, on 11 May 1898. They are posed in one of the ship's launches, after the ship had been repainted in peacetime colors following the end of the Spanish-American War. The Medal of Honor was awarded to several men who took part in this operation. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: Seaman Willard Dwight Miller, USN, a Canadian who served on USS Nashville (PG-7) during the Spanish-American War. Both he and his brother, Harry H. Miller, were awarded the Medal of Honor for exhibiting "extraordinary bravery and coolness" during the 11 May 1898 telegraph cable cutting operation off Cienfuegos, Cuba. This is a halftone reproduction. Courtesy of the Army Museum, Halifax Citadel, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1971. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: Seaman Harry H. Miller, USN, a Canadian who served on USS Nashville (PG-7) during the Spanish-American War. Both he and his brother, Willard Dwight Miller, were awarded the Medal of Honor for exhibiting "extraordinary bravery and coolness" during the 11 May 1898 telegraph cable cutting operation off Cienfuegos, Cuba. This is a halftone reproduction. Courtesy of the Army Museum, Halifax Citadel, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1971. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: Coxswain Benjamin F. Baker, USN, halftone reproduction of a photograph, published in "Deeds of Valor," Volume II, page 362, by the Perrien-Keydel Company, Detroit, 1907. Coxwain Baker received the Medal of Honor for "extraordinary bravery and coolness" during the 11 May 1898 cutting of the underwater cable at Cienfuegos, Cuba. He then was serving on USS Nashville (PG-7). U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: Blacksmith Austin J. Durney, USN, halftone reproduction of a photograph, published in "Deeds of Valor," Volume II, page 360, by the Perrien-Keydel Company, Detroit, 1907. Austin J. Durney received the Medal of Honor for his "extraordinary bravery and coolness" during the cable cutting operation off Cienfuegos, Cuba on 11 May 1898. He then was serving on USS Nashville (PG-7). U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: Carpenter's Mate Third Class William Meyer, USN, halftone reproduction of a photograph, published in "Deeds of Valor," Volume II, page 359, by the Perrien-Keydel Company, Detroit, 1907. William Meyer received the Medal of Honor for his "extraordinary bravery and coolness" during the 11 May 1898 cable cutting operation off Cienfuegos, Cuba. He then was serving on USS Nashville (PG-7). U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after the capital of Tennessee, USS Nashville (PG-7) was a 1,371-ton steel gunboat that was built by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at Newport News, Virginia, and was commissioned on 19 August 1897. The ship was approximately 233 feet long and 38 feet wide, had a top speed of 16.3 knots, and had a crew of 180 officers and men. Nashville was armed with eight 4-inch guns, four 6-pounder guns, and two 1-pounders.
Nashville joined the North Atlantic Fleet shortly after being commissioned. At the start of the Spanish-American War, Nashville was sent south to join the blockade of Cuba and from 22 April 1898 to 26 July, she captured four Spanish ships. On 11 May 1898, Nashville took part in the daring raid to cut the underwater Spanish telegraph cables at Cienfuegos, Cuba. Several of Nashville’s crewmembers used one of the ship’s launches to assist in cutting two of the three major cables while enduring withering enemy fire from shore. Several men on board the launch were awarded the Medal of Honor for this operation. Nashville continued patrolling off the coast of Cuba for the rest of the war.
Nashville left the Caribbean on 14 October 1899 and steamed towards the Philippines via the Suez Canal, arriving at Manila on 31 December. She assisted in the military campaign against the Filipino rebels, primarily by providing gunfire support for US troops. At the start of the Boxer Rebellion in China, Nashville left Cavite in the Philippines on 8 June 1900 and transported a US Marine detachment that was to be used in the rescue of Western legation diplomats who were surrounded and under siege by the Chinese Boxers at Peking. Nashville arrived at Taku, China, on 18 June, disembarked the Marines, and joined the Western naval task force off the Chinese coast until the siege of Peking ended. Once the Boxers were suppressed, Nashville remained in China but was sent back to the Philippines on 3 February 1901. In July, she was ordered to the Mediterranean, arriving in Genoa, Italy, on 22 September 1901.
Nashville patrolled the Mediterranean for more than a year and on 1 November 1902 she left Gibraltar and headed back to the United States, arriving at Boston on 16 January 1903. The gunboat then was transferred to the Caribbean and remained there from 26 May 1903 to 4 March 1904, when she was sent back to Boston and was decommissioned on 30 June.
Nashville was re-commissioned on 8 August 1905 at the Boston Navy Yard and on 8 September was sent back to the Caribbean. She patrolled the waters off Santo Domingo, Cuba, and Puerto Rico until 26 June 1906, but was once again sent back to Boston for decommissioning on 23 July. After remaining in reserve for three years, Nashville was transferred to the Illinois Naval Militia on 29 April 1909. From May 1909 to July 1911, the gunboat was based at Chicago and was used as a training ship on the Great Lakes. After completing a major overhaul, Nashville left the United States on 7 January 1912 and arrived at Santo Domingo on 31 January, starting a five- year tour of duty protecting American lives and property off the coast of the West Indies and Central America. Nashville took part in the blockade of Mexico in 1914 during the Vera Cruz crisis and, after a short period of reduced commission in New Orleans from 10 May to 8 July 1916, was sent back to patrolling the Mexican coast until America entered World War I on 6 April 1917.
On 2 August 1917, Nashville left Norfolk, Virginia, and was sent to Gibraltar, arriving there on 18 August. The gunboat was assigned to patrol and escort duty off the coast of Morocco and she continued escorting Allied convoys off North Africa and in the western Mediterranean until 15 July 1918. Nashville eventually left Gibraltar and arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, on 1 August, where she was decommissioned for the last time in October. The old gunboat remained there for three years and finally was sold on 20 October 1921 to J.L. Bernard & Company of Washington, DC, for the Richmond Cedar Works and was ignominiously converted into a barge named Richmond Cedar Works No. 4. The barge was taken out of service in 1954 and was scrapped in 1957, a sad end to a once proud warship.
