Return to Online
Library listing
Return to Online
Library listing
USS Bennington, last completed of the three 1700-ton Yorktown class gunboats, was built at Chester, Pennsylvania. Commissioned in June 1891, she performed her initial service with the Squadron of Evolution, which cruised to the Caribbean and South America from late 1891 into mid-1892. After a brief assignment to the South Atlantic Squadron, Bennington crossed the Atlantic to southern European waters, where she remained until February 1893, when she accompanied a replica of Christopher Columbus' Pinta on a voyage the Western Hemisphere. The gunboat made a second deployment to the Mediterranean area between August 1893 and February 1904. She then went to the Pacific, by way of Cape Horn.
Bennington operated along the west coasts of North and South America, with occasional trips to Hawaii, for more than four years. Her Spanish-American War activities were limited to guarding U.S. interests in Hawaii and along the coast of California. In September 1898 she began her only deployment to the Far East. En route to that area she took possession of Wake, a remote atoll that is still U.S. territory. While in the western Pacific, Bennington took part in operations to supress insurrection in the Philippines, as well as visiting Japan and China. She returned to the U.S. West Coast in August 1901 and was soon decommissioned.
Following a shipyard overhaul, Bennington was recommissioned in early March 1903 to begin another tour of duty with the Pacific Squadron. This assignment largely involved operations off the western shores of the Americas, ranging from Alaska to South America. She also went to Hawaii in mid-1904 and in the spring and early summer of 1905. On 21 July 1905, a few days after returning to mainland, Bennington was preparing to leave San Diego, California, when she suffered a violent boiler explosion. More than sixty of her officers and men lost their lives in this tragedy, which left the ship beached and partially sunk. Refloated and towed to the Mare Island Navy Yard, in San Francisco Bay, she was placed out of commission at the end of October 1905. The badly damaged, and now relatively elderly Bennington was not repaired and, after five years of inactivity, was sold in November 1910. Her new owners converted her to a barge and took her to Hawaii, where she was employed until scuttled at sea in the mid-1920s.
This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have concerning USS Bennington (Gunboat # 4).
For more images related to this ship, see:
| 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 63248 USS Bennington (Gunboat # 4) Photographed circa 1891 by J.S. Johnston, New York City. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
 |
|
Photo #: NH 67551 USS Bennington (Gunboat # 4) Dressed with flags in a harbor, probably while serving with the Squadron of Evolution, circa 1891-1892. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 515 pixels |
 |
|
Photo #: NH 102777 USS Bennington (Gunboat # 4) Fine-screen halftone reproduction of a photograph of the ship in harbor, circa 1891-1901. It was published by the SUB-POST Card Co., of Los Angeles, California. Donation of H.E. ("Ed") Coffer. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 475 pixels |
 |
|
Photo #: NH 56381 USS Bennington (Gunboat # 4) In a European harbor, circa 1892-1893, with USS Newark (Cruiser # 1) alongside. Courtesy of Arrigo Barilli, Bologna, Italy. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 535 pixels |
 |
|
Photo #: NH 102742 USS Bennington (Gunboat # 4) In a harbor, 1893. Copied from "The New Navy of the United States", by N.L. Stebbins, (New York, 1912). Donation of David Shadell, 1987. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 495 pixels |
 |
|
Photo #: NH 102821 USS Bennington (Gunboat # 4) Off Valparaiso, Chile, 3 April 1894. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 540 pixels |
 |
|
Photo #: NH 100931-KN (color) USS Bennington (Gunboat # 4) In drydock at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, circa 1894-98. This photograph was published on a color-tinted postcard by Edward H. Mitchell, San Francisco, California. Courtesy of H.E. ("Ed") Coffer, 1986. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 106KB; 740 x 485 pixels |
 |
|
Photo #: NH 77460 USS Bennington (Gunboat # 4) In dry dock at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, circa 1894-1898. This image is printed on a postal card containing a hand-written message referring to Bennington's 19 July 1905 boiler explosion. Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (MSC), 1973. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 505 pixels |
 |
|
Photo #: NH 102765 USS Bennington (Gunboat # 4) At Shanghai, China, on 4 July 1901, dressed with flags in honor of Independence Day. Collection of Chief Boatswain's Mate John E. Lynch, USN. Donated by his son, Robert J. Lynch, in April 2000. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 535 pixels |
 |
|
Photo #: NH 102766 USS Bennington (Gunboat # 4) In the Kowloon dry dock, Hong Kong, China, in 1901. Collection of Chief Boatswain's Mate John E. Lynch, USN. Donated by his son, Robert J. Lynch, in April 2000. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 74KB; 465 x 765 pixels |
 |
For more images related to this ship, see:
| 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 24 September 1998
Revised and expanded 4 March 2005