USS Annapolis ( PG - 10 ) The first USS " Annapolis " ( PG - 10 / IX - 1 ) was a gunboat in the United States Navy . She was named for Annapolis , Maryland . " Annapolis " was laid down on 18 April 1896 at Elizabethport , New Jersey , by Lewis Nixon and his shipyard superintendent , Arthur Leopold Busch ; launched on 23 December 1896 ; sponsored by Ms . Georgia Porter , the daughter of Captain Theodoris Porter ; and commissioned at New York on 20 July 1897 , Commander John J . Hunker in command . Service history . Spanish - American War . Following commissioning , the gunboat operated along the east coast and in the Caribbean Sea engaged in training missions . In March 1898 , she was assigned to the North Atlantic Fleet . By April , the U . S . was on the verge of war with Spain over conditions in Cuba . On 18 April , the warship departed New York on her way to the Florida coast . She arrived at Key West on the 25th , the day on which President William McKinley signed a joint resolution of Congress that formalized the fact that a state of war had existed between the U . S . and Spain since the 21st . She made a round - trip voyage from Key West to Port Tampa and back before joining the blockade off Havana on 2 May . She remained there for 19 days . On 8 May , she assisted in capturing the Spanish sailing vessel " Santiago Apostol " , bound from Yucatan to Havana with a cargo of fish . The remainder of that tour passed more or less routinely , and " Annapolis " retired from Cuban waters on 21 May . She spent eight days at Key West and two weeks at Port Tampa before rejoining the blockade at Daiquiri on 22 June . The following day , the gunboat moved to Guantanamo Bay . On 29 June , while she was on station at Guantanamo Bay with the torpedo boat and cruiser , " Annapolis " she assisted those ships in the capture of the British steamer " Adula " . On 13 July , she left the Guantanamo Bay area to make a reconnaissance visit to Baracoa on Cuba ' s northeastern coast . While at Baracoa on the 15th , she conferred with a group of friendly Cubans and engaged in a brief gun duel with an enemy shore battery near the eastern end of the town . She departed Baracoa that same day and resumed duty at Guantanamo Bay on the 16th . On the 18th , she received orders to help capture Nipe Bay located about up the northeastern coast from Baracoa . Following , , and into the bay on the 21st , " Annapolis " successfully passed through a known minefield . Inside , the four American ships discovered the lying at anchor inside the bay . After a brisk exchange of fire , the Americans bested the Spanish warship in the resulting Battle of Nipe Bay , and she began to sink . " Annapolis " and the three other ships set about the tasks of completing the capture of the Nipe Bay littoral and removing the mines from the bay itself . The gunboat departed Nipe Bay on 22 July and set a course for Puerto Rico where she assisted the Army in the capture of the city of Ponce on the 30th . For the remainder of the war , she served at Puerto Rico , making one voyage from that island to St . Thomas in the Danish West Indies at the end of the first week in August just before the armistice of 12 August . Post - war deployment . On 24 August , she departed Puerto Rico and proceeded — via Key West — to the New England coast where she visited Newport , Rhode Island ; Portsmouth , New Hampshire ; and New York City . Late in October , the gunboat headed back to the West Indies where she cruised for the next six months . " Annapolis " returned to the New England coast late in April 1899 and operated along the eastern seaboard for the next four months . On 5 September , she was placed out of commission at Norfolk , Virginia . She was recommissioned on 14 November 1900 , Lieutenant Commander Karl Rohrer in command . At the end of December 1900 , she departed Hampton Roads , bound for the Far East . Steaming via the Atlantic Ocean , the Mediterranean Sea , the Suez Canal , and the Indian Ocean , the warship arrived at Cavite in the Philippines on 24 April 1901 . She remained in the Far East for the next three years . For the most part , the Philippine Islands constituted her sphere of operations . She conducted patrols , carried passengers and mail among the islands , and supported the Army during the first stage of the Philippine - American War . She also participated extensively in the hydrographic surveys made of the islands . In the summer and fall of 1903 , she joined American ' s Far Eastern fleet for a cruise to Chinese and Japan ese waters . During that voyage , she visited Chefoo and Shanghai in China , Kobe and Yokohama in Japan , and Tamsui on the island of Formosa before returning to Cavite on 19 November . The gunboat operated in the Philippines for the next three months , but late in February 1904 , she returned to Shanghai for a month . After a week of target practice in Chinese waters from 30 March - 8 May , " Annapolis " headed back to the Philippines , arriving in Cavite on 13 May . However , her stay was brief because she departed Cavite again on 2 June and shaped a course via Yokohama back to the U . S . " Annapolis " reached Mare Island , California later that summer , was decommissioned , and entered the navy yard there for extensive repairs . She was placed back in commission on 25 March 1907 , Lt . Cdr . Lewis J . Clark in command , and departed San Francisco , California on 5 April bound — via Hawaii — for American Samoa . The gunboat arrived at Tutuila , Samoa on 22 May and began duty as station ship . She discharged those duties until 9 September 1911 , when she departed Pago Pago to return home . The warship made a stop at Honolulu on the way back , arrived at San Francisco on 9 October , and entered the Mare Island Navy Yard later that day . The gunboat was decommissioned once more on 16 December 1911 . " Annapolis " remained at Mare Island until recommissioned on 1 May 1912 , Cdr . Warren J . Terhune in command . Sometime in May , the warship moved south to San Diego , California , whence she departed the 21st and headed for the coast of Central America . She arrived at Corinto — off the coast of Nicaragua — on 13 June . Conditions in that Central American republic had been unstable throughout the 1900s ( decade ) but , after 1910 , became increasingly worse as three factions vied with each other for power . By the summer of 1912 , General Manuel Estrada Cabrera — more or less democratically elected under American auspices — had been forced put of office . His vice president — Adolfo Diaz — took over his duties ; but , by the end of July , full scale civil war raged in Nicaragua . " Annapolis " returned to the Corinto area on 1 August following a six - week cruise along the coasts of Honduras , El Salvador , and Guatemala . The gunboat remained at Corinto for the following four months , periodically sending landing parties ashore to protect Americans lives and property and to restore order in areas where Americans were located . On 9 December , she departed Nicaraguan waters to return to San Francisco where , after stops at Acajutla , El Salvador , and at San Diego , she arrived on 30 December . That same day , the warship entered the Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs . She completed repairs late in January 1913 and returned to sea on the 20th . The gunboat made a 16 - day stop at San Diego before resuming her voyage to Central American waters on 7 February . " Annapolis " arrived at Amapala , Honduras on 17 February and remained there until 9 March . After a short cruise to the Gulf of Fonseca and to Petosi in Nicaragua on 9 – 10 March , she returned to Amapala on the 10th and remained there until 23 April . At that time , she departed the Honduran coast and headed for Mexico where successive coups had unseated first Porfirio Díaz and then his successor Francisco Madero . Gen . Victoriano Huerta seized the reins of government , but others — notably Venustiano Carranza , Emiliano Zapata , Álvaro Obregón , and Francisco " Pancho " Villa — contested his usurpation of power and generally added to the mayhem in Mexico . For the next six years , " Annapolis " patrolled the Mexican coast investigating conditions , protecting American interests , and assisting American refugees . She spent most of her time along the Mexican coast but returned periodically to California for repairs , provisions , and training . In June 1918 , she moved through the Panama Canal to begin duty out of New Orleans , Louisiana with the American Patrol . She cruised the waters of the Gulf of Mexico until 25 April 1919 , at which time she was detached from the American Patrol . She departed New Orleans early in May and arrived in San Diego later that month . On 1 July , " Annapolis " was placed out of commission at the Mare Island Navy Yard . Early in 1920 , the gunboat was towed to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania where she was turned over to the Pennsylvania State Nautical School on 1 April 1920 . She served as a school ship , on a loan basis , for the next 20 years . Fate . On 17 July , when the Navy adopted its alphanumeric system of classification , " Annapolis " was designated PG - 10 . On 30 June 1940 , her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register , and she was turned over to the Maritime Commission for disposal . Presumably , she was scrapped .