USS Boston (1884)

For other ships of the same name, see USS Boston and USS Despatch.

Career (USA)
USS Boston in 1891
Name:	USS Boston
Namesake:	Boston, Massachusetts
Ordered:	23 July 1883
Builder:	John Roach & Sons, Chester, Pennsylvania
Launched:	4 December 1884
Commissioned:	2 May 1887
Decommissioned:	4 November 1893
Recommissioned:	15 November 1895
Decommissioned:	15 September 1899
Recommissioned:	11 August 1902
Decommissioned:	10 June 1907
Recommissioned:	18 June 1918
Fate:	Scuttled 8 April 1946
Notes:	On loan to Oregon Naval Militia 15 June 1911 – September 1916 On loan to United States Shipping Board 24 May 1917 – June 1918
General characteristics
Type:	Protected cruiser
Displacement:	3,189 long tons (3,240 t)
Length:	283 ft (86.3 m)
Beam:	42 ft (12.8 m)
Draft:	17 ft (5.2 m)
Installed power:	3,500 ihp (2,600 kW)^[1]
Propulsion:	1 × horizontal compound engine 8 × boilers 1 × screw^[1]
Speed:	16.3 kn (30.2 km/h; 18.8 mph)^[1]
Range:	3,390 nmi (6,280 km; 3,900 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)^[1]
Complement:	284 officers and men
Armament:	2 × 8 in (203 mm) guns 6 × 6 in (152 mm) guns
Armor:	Barbettes: 2 in (51 mm)^[1] Deck: 1.5 in (38 mm)^[1]
Notes:	One of the U.S. Navy's first four steel ships

The fifth USS Boston, a protected cruiser, was launched on 4 December 1884 by John Roach & Sons, Chester, Pennsylvania, and commissioned on 2 May 1887, Captain Francis M. Ramsay in command.

Service history

Pre-Spanish–American War

Boston, being the second cruiser of the New Navy completed, was not ready for active service until 1888. She then made a cruise to Guatemala and Haiti to protect American citizens. She joined the Squadron of Evolution on 30 September 1889 and cruised to the Mediterranean and South America from 7 December 1889 – 29 July 1890, and along the east coast in 1891. Boston departed New York on 24 October 1891 for the Pacific via Cape Horn, arriving at San Francisco on 2 May 1892. Except for a prospective commanding officer's cruise to the Hawaiian Islands from 11 August 1892 – 10 October 1893 (in which it provided a shore party in January 1893 that bolstered the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy), she remained on the west coast until laid up at Mare Island Navy Yard on 4 November 1893.

Spanish–American War

Recommissioned on 15 November 1895, Boston joined the Asiatic Squadron at Yokohama, Japan on 25 February 1896. She remained in the Orient protecting American interests for the next four years and during the Spanish–American War took part in the Battle of Manila Bay on 1 May 1898 and the capture of Manila on 13 August 1898. She remained in the Philippines assisting in their pacification until 8 June 1899.

Post-war

Boston returned to San Francisco on 9 August 1899 and went out of commission at Mare Island Navy Yard on 15 September 1899. She remained out of commission until 11 August 1902 and then rejoined the Pacific Squadron. From 16–25 June 1905, she helped represent the Navy at the Lewis and Clark Exposition at Portland, Oregon, and from 23 April – 10 May 1906 she helped care for the victims of the San Francisco earthquake and fire. She went out of commission again at Puget Sound Navy Yard on 10 June 1907.

USS Despatch (IX-2) at Yerba Buena Island, shortly before her scuttling, in 1946.

From 15 June 1911 to September 1916, she served as a training vessel with the Oregon Naval Militia.

World War I

With the United States declaration of war on Germany in April 1917, Boston was loaned to the United States Shipping Board from 24 May 1917 – June 1918. Boston was converted to a freighter by Seattle Construction & Dry Dock in 1917–1918. Her guns were most likely removed when she was laid up at Bremerton between September 1916 and March 1917. On 18 June 1918, she was recommissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard as a receiving ship and towed to Yerba Buena Island, California, where she served as a receiving ship until 1940.

World War II

She was renamed Despatch, the sixth U.S. Navy ship to bear that name, on 9 August 1940, thus freeing her original name for use on the new heavy cruiser Boston (CA-69). From 1940 to October 1945, she was used as a radio school. The old ship was reclassified IX-2 on 17 February 1941.

Despatch was towed to sea and sunk off San Francisco on 8 April 1946.

Legacy

Boston was one of a very few U.S. Navy ships to have served in the Spanish–American War and both world wars. Her 60-year career was one of the longest in the history of the U.S. Navy. At the time of the Second World War, Boston and Olympia were the only surviving ships from the Battle of Manila Bay.

Both of Boston‍ 's 8-inch (203-mm) guns were placed at the new Seattle Naval Hospital in 1942. After the hospital closed, the guns went with the site to the new Firlands Sanitarium owned by King County in 1947. At some point after 1952, the guns were moved to Hamlin Park, in Shoreline, Washington.^[2] However, county records do not indicate when the guns were placed in the park or why it was done.^[3]