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Gunboat Photo Archive

Machias (PG 5)



Call sign (1919):
George - Quack - Rush - Nan

Machias (Gunboat No. 5)



Call sign (1909):
Nan - Jig - Item


Call sign (1913):
Nan - Quack - Love



Machias served the U. S. Navy, the Connecticut Naval Militia and Mexico


Machias Class Gunboat:

  • Laid down 4 February 1891 at Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
  • Launched 8 December 1891
  • Completed 12 April 1892
  • Accepted 23 June 1893
  • Commissioned USS Machias, Gunboat No. 5, 20 July 1893 at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Portsmouth, NH
  • Decommissioned 14 August 1900 at Boston Navy Yard, Boston, MA
  • Recommissioned 24 July 1901
  • Decommissioned 14 May 1904 at Pensacola, FL
  • Sunk in a hurricane 27 September 1906 at Pensacola
  • Assigned to the Connecticut Naval Militia 19 October 1907 at New Haven, CT
  • Withdrawn 25 April 1914
  • Recommissioned 27 April 1914 at New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, NY
  • Decommissioned 3 October 1919 at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA
  • Designated PG-5, 17 July 1920
  • Sold to Mexico 29 October 1920 and renamed Agua Prieta (R 35)
  • Scrapped in 1935.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,177 t.
  • Length 204'
  • Beam 32' 1"
  • Draft 12'
  • Speed 15.5 kts.
  • Complement 154
    1914 - 163
  • Armament: Eight 4" gun mounts, four 6-pounders and four 1-pounders
    1905 - Three 4" mounts, four 6-pounders, two 1-pounders and two .30 cal. machine guns
    1911 - Eight 4"/40 rapid fire mounts, four 6-pounder rapid fire mounts, two 1-pounder rapid fire mounts and added two temporary 3-pounder rapid fire mounts
    1914 - Eight 4"/40 rapid fire mounts, two 6-pounder rapid fire mounts, two 1-pounder rapid fire mounts and added two temporary 3-pounder rapid fire mounts
    1918 - Four 4"/50 mounts and two 3-pounders
  • Propulsion: Two straight-away cylinderical boilers, two 924ihp vertical triple-expansion engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image
    Size Image Description Source
    USS Machias (Gunboat No. 5)
    Machias 103k Bath Iron Works photo from the the publication "Fighting Ships from Bath" by Paul Downing Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 22 June 2021
    Machias 99k George Pek
    Machias 230k U.S. Navy photo Jim Kurrasch, Battleship Iowa, Pacific Battleship Center
    Castine 94k Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine
    View of the Yard's waterfront during the 1890s, with a gunboat (either Machias, Gunboat No. 5, or Castine, Gunboat No. 6) alongside. This photograph, published on a postal card, was taken before the ships were lengthened amidships.
    Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (Medical Service Corps), 1973
    U.S. Navy photo NH 78205
    Naval Historical Center
    Castine 84k USS Machias (Gunboat No. 5) and USS Castine (Gunboat No. 6)
    General appearance plan, with decorated mount, showing the ships' preliminary design. It was presented to the Secretary of the Navy [the Honorable Benjamin F. Tracy] by the Chief Constructor, circa the early 1890s
    Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation
    U.S. Navy photo NH 99985-A-KN
    Machias 111k c. 1893
    Library of Congress photo LC-D4-20514
    Mike Green
    Machias 106k c. 1893
    Detroit Photographic Co. photo 020515/Library of Congress photo LC-D4-20515
    Machias 358k c. 1893
    As initially completed. Her hull was soon lengthened amidships
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 46901
    Machias 561k Photo from The American Navy; Belford, Middlebrook and Co., Chicago - 1898 Thomas Becher
    Machias 62k Off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 7 August 1901.
    Courtesy of Howard I. Chapelle, Smithsonian Institution
    U.S. Navy photo NH 46902
    Naval Historical Center
    Machias 84k c. 1903
    Courtesy U.S. Warships of World War I
    Mike Green
    Machias 223k Anchored off New Haven, Connecticut on July 4, 1908
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 46900
    Machias 302k Postcard of Machias in New Haven Harbor. Cancellation stamped 2 August 1908, New London, CT Tommy Trampp
    Machias 75k Photo probably taken while serving with the Connecticut State Naval Militia
    Photo from the 1914 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships
    Robert Hurst
    Machias 84k U.S. Navy photo from the 1919 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships
    ARM Agua Prieta (R 35)
    Machias 145k The Mexican Gunboat Agua Prieta (R 35) was formerly the U.S. Navy gunboat USS Machias (PG-5). The ship was in commission from 1891 to circa 1935 and is photographed at Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. The Agua Prieta was purchased in October, 1920. This photograph was acquired by the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence, probably as a postcard on public sale
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 93258
    Mike Green

    Commanding Officers
    01CDR Charles Jackson Train, USN - USNA Class of 1865
    Retired as Rear Admiral
    20 July 1893 - 18 September 1894
    02CDR Leavitt Curtis Logan, USN - USNA Class of 186710 May 1898
    03LCDR Nathan Sargent, USN - USNA Class of 18701901 - 17 September 1901
    04CDR Henry McCrea, USN - USNA Class of 187117 September 1901 - 14 May 1904
    05CDR Bernard Orme Scott, USN - USNA Class of 187423 September 1903
    06LCDR Albert Ware Marshall, USN - USNA Class of 1896
    Awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal (1918) - Retired as Rear Admiral
    1 April 1915 - 26 June 1916
    07LCDR Austin Kautz, USN - USNA Class of 1897
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Captain
    26 June 1916 - 26 November 1917
    08CDR Richard Philip McCullough, USN - USNA Class of 1904
    Awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal (1918) - Retired as Rear Admiral
    23 June 1918 - 15 August 1918
    09LCDR George Ernest Lake, USNRF - USNA Class of 1906
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1918)
    15 August 1918 - 18 October 1918
    10CDR Frederick Raymonde Naile, USN - USNA Class of 190018 October 1918 - 1919
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan

    View the Machias (PG-5)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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