USS Castine ( PG - 6 ) USS " Castine " ( PG - 6 ) was a gunboat of the United States Navy in commission from 1894 to 1901 , from 1903 to 1905 , and from 1908 to 1919 . The first U . S . Navy ship named for Castine , Maine , she saw service during the Spanish - American War , the Philippine - American War , and World War I . Construction and commissioning . " Castine " was launchedon 11 May 1892 by Bath Iron Works in Bath , Maine , sponsored by Ms . M . Hichborn . She was commissioned on 22 October 1894 with Commander Thomas Perry in command , and reported to the United States Atlantic Fleet . Service history . 1894 - 1898 . Assigned to the South Atlantic Ocean , " Castine " cleared New England waters in February 1895 . She called at the Azores and Gibraltar , passed through the Suez Canal , visited Zanzibar and Mozambique , and rounded the Cape of Good Hope before arriving on station at Pernambuco , Brazil , on 13 October 1895 . She cruised in South American and West Indian waters – save for an overhaul period in Norfolk , Virginia – until March 1898 . Spanish - American War , 1898 . As American relations with Spain deteriorated just prior to the April 1898 outbreak of the Spanish - American War , " Castine " was called north in March 1898 to take her place on the blockade surrounding Cuba . She served in the force which accompanied the United States Army s troop transports to Cuba , and remained in the Caribbean through the close of the war in August 1898 . 1898 - 1916 . In December 1898 , " Castine " sailed from Boston , Massachusetts , for the Suez Canal on her way to East Asia . Upon her arrival in the Philippine Islands , she began duty in coordination with the U . S . Army to combat Philippine insurgent forces during the Philippine - American War . Operating primarily in the southern islands , she supervised the post - Spanish - American War evacuation of the Spanish garrison at Zamboanga in May 1899 . With a cruise to Chinese ports in 1900 , " Castine " remained in East Asian waters until June 1901 , when she cleared for the Suez Canal and the United States East Coast . She was decommissioned at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , on 8 October 1901 . " Castine " remained at Philadelphia until recommissioning on 12 November 1903 . Upon recommissioning , she saw duty in the South Atlantic , Mediterranean Sea , and Caribbean . On 23 September 1905 , she was decommissioned at Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery , Maine . " Castine " remained at Portsmouth Navy Yard until 4 October 1908 , when she recommissioned to serve as a submarine tender at U . S . East Coast naval bases until May 1913 . She then returned to the Caribbean for gunboat duty , and later cruised off Vera Cruz and Tampico , Mexico . Near - loss in Santo Domingo harbor , 29 August 1916 . " Castine " was at anchor in the harbor of Santo Domingo along with the U . S . Navy armored cruiser USS " Memphis " ( Armored Cruiser No . 10 ) on 29 August 1916 when , shortly after 12 : 00 , an unexpected heavy swell began to develop and the ships began to roll heavily . " Castine " and " Memphis " both made preparations to leave the harbor and began to raise steam ; " Memphis " expected to be able to get underway at about 16 : 35 , with the smaller " Castine " able to do so earlier . Conditions in the harbor had deteriorated badly by 15 : 45 , when the ships sighted an approaching wave of yellow water stretching along the entire horizon . By 16 : 00 , the wave was closer , had turned ochre in color , and had reached about in height ; at the same time , the ships began to roll very heavily , with " Memphis " rolling 45° . Around 16 : 40 the giant wave the ships had seen approaching over the past hour arrived ; it turned out to be a set of three waves of up to in height striking in rapid succession . " Castine " had gotten underway under minimal power and managed to put to sea through the huge waves , although she suffered damage and nearly capsized . " Memphis " , still immobile , was battered into a complete wreck , and a group of her sailors returning from shore leave in a motor launch were caught in the harbor by the waves and swamped ; " Memphis " suffered 40 killed and 204 badly injured . In his 1966 account of the incident , " The Wreck of the Memphis " , Captain Edward L . Beach , Jr . , son of " Memphis " s commanding officer Captain Edward L . Beach , Sr . , described the heroic efforts of " Castine " to assist crewmen of " Memphis " who had been swamped in the motor launch . He also ascribed the events in the harbor to an unexpected tsunami exceeding in height , and this explanation has been carried forward by most sources discussing the incident . More recent research , however , has called this explanation into question . No record of any seismic event in the Caribbean on 29 August 1916 that could have triggered a tsunami has been found , and the rate of advance of the large wave " Castine " and " Memphis " reported — about an hour to cross the distance from the horizon to the ships — matches that of a wind - generated ocean wave ( possibly a rogue wave ) ; a tsunami , in contrast , would have covered the distance in only a few minutes . The periods of the three large waves that struck " Castine " and " Memphis " also are characteristic of large wind - generated waves rather than tsunamis . A likely source for such large , wind - generated waves in Santo Domingo Harbor on 29 August 1916 does exist , in that three hurricanes active in the Caribbean between 12 August and 2 September 1916 , ( the first struck Corpus Christi , Texas , on 18 August 1916 ) passed westward just to the south . Waves generated by these storms could well have combined to create large waves like those that struck " Castine " and " Memphis " . Such a circumstance appears to explain the waves better than the tsunami theory . Oceanographer Dr . George Pararas - Carayammis in particular published an extensively detailed rebuttal demonstrating that a tsunami could not have caused the near - loss of " Castine " and foundering of " Memphis " , but that the last of the three hurricanes , a category 2 hurricane , likely did , creating a 59 - foot ( 18 - meter ) wave that reached a breaker height of 90 feet ( 27 . 4 meters ) as it approached " Memphis " . World War I , 1917 - 1918 . The United States entered World War I on 6 April 1917 , and " Castine " s time in the Caribbean ended in July 1917 . On 5 August 1917 , she sailed to join the Patrol Force at Gibraltar , where she served until 21 December 1918 , when she returned to the United States . . The Navy Cross was awarded to the son of Rear Admiral Peter C . Assersen , Captain William Christian Asserson ( 21 August 1875 – 8 July 1939 ) , for distinguished service as commanding officer of " Castine " while engaged in the exacting and hazardous duty of transporting troops and supplies to European ports through waters infested with enemy submarine s and naval mine s during World War I . Decommissioning and disposal . " Castine " was decommissioned at New Orleans , Louisiana , on 28 August 1919 and sold on 5 August 1921 for $ 12 , 500 . 00 ; she was resold for $ 40 , 000 . 00 in 1923 . On 12 December 1924 , she was under tow to Texas , where she was to be scrapped , when an explosion aboard her caused her to sink in 20 minutes . Wreck . The wreck of " Castine " was identified by Thales Geosolutions in 2001 as a modern ship in 105 feet ( 32 meters ) of sea water . Her wreck was documented further in May 2005 when a team from the United States Minerals Management Service ( MMS ) was identifying sonar targets . The site was re - examined by the MMS to evaluate damage following August 2005s Hurricane Katrina ; the team found that even though " Castine " s wreck was within 30 miles of the eye , very little damage occurred . In March 2009 , the site was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places .