USS Sandoval (1895)

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Career (US)
Laid down:	date unknown
Launched:	20 September 1895
Commissioned:	2 September 1898
Decommissioned:	10 May 1899
In service:	14 October 1900
Out of service:	1918
Struck:	23 July 1919
Homeport:	Charlotte Harbor, New York
Captured:	from Spain, 17 July 1898
Fate:	sold, 30 September 1919
General characteristics
Displacement:	106 tons
Length:	116 ft 10 in (35.61 m)
Beam:	15 ft 6 in (4.72 m)
Draught:	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Propulsion:	19 knots
Complement:	21
Armament:	two three-pounders., two Colts
Armour:	steel

USS Sandoval (1895) was an Alvarado-class patrol boat acquired by the U.S. Navy from the Spanish as a prize-of-war. Duties assigned her by the Navy included patrolling coastal and river waterways, and, later, acting as a “practice ship” for the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland and for the New York Naval Militia as well.

Captured from the Spanish during the Spanish-American War

The first ship to be named Sandoval by the US Navy, she was a steel gunboat launched on 20 September 1895 at Clydebank Engine and Shipbuilding Co., Clydebank, Scotland, for the Spanish Navy. She was captured on 17 July 1898 upon the surrender of Spanish forces at Santiago de Cuba. Taken in tow by the tug USS Potomac (AT-50), Sandoval was berthed alongside USS Vulcan (1884) on 2 September 1898 and commissioned the same day, Lt. Edwin C. Anderson in command.

East Coast operations

Upon completing preliminary repairs, Sandoval was taken in tow by the tug Manati, and beached near Fisherman's Point, Cuba. There she was careened and her hull cleaned in preparation for the voyage to the United States. Towed off the beach on 1 October, Sandoval ran steam trials on 27 October and departed Santiago Bay on 3 November 1898.

Calling at Key West, Florida, on 9 November, Sandoval sailed on 13 November in company with her sister gunboat, USS Alvarado (1895), for Jacksonville, Florida; Port Royal, South Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Wilmington, North Carolina; Hampton Roads, Virginia; and arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, on 24 December 1898. After calling at Annapolis, Maryland, on 29 December, Sandoval reached the Washington Navy Yard on 3 January 1899 for repairs. Standing down the Potomac River on 3 April 1899 after overhaul, Sandoval and Alvarado continued northward to New York City; Providence, Rhode Island; Boston, Massachusetts, and Marblehead, Massachusetts. Then proceeding to the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard, Sandoval was decommissioned on 10 May 1899 and placed in reserve.

Recommissioning as a “practice ship” for the Naval Academy

Recommissioned on 14 October 1900, Sandoval was assigned to the United States Naval Academy as a practice ship. Sandoval and her sister, Alvarado, remained at Annapolis until 1906, returning to the Norfolk Navy Yard to decommission on 22 March 1906.

Loaned to the New York Naval Militia

Loaned to the New York Naval Militia on 16 November, she arrived in Lake Ontario in September 1907. Commissioning each summer for training duty on the Great Lakes, she was based at Charlotte Harbor, New York, and frequently cruised to Ogdensburg and Sackets Harbor, New York. During World War I, Sandoval continued her training duties on the Great Lakes, calling at ports such as Erie, Pennsylvania, and Chicago, Illinois., into 1918.

Final decommissioning after World War I

Declared surplus to Navy requirements, Sandoval was ordered sold on 10 July 1919 and accordingly struck from the Navy list on 23 July 1919. She was sold on 30 September 1919 to Charles S. Neff of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was registered until 1924 as a private yacht.

References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

See also

• List of United States Navy ships

External links

• USS Sandoval
• Photo gallery at navsource.org