Ah, how soon they forget the Sand Pebbles
So, with the commissioning of the USS Canberra (LCS-30) in Australia, a couple of news articles subsequently flashed claiming she was the “first U.S. warship commissioned outside of the country.”
About that.
The Yangtze River Patrol of the Asiatic Fleet, especially after 1898, included a series of more than a dozen river gunboats that spent their entire career– with the exception of regular runs to Hong Kong or Cavite for maintenance periods– in Chinese waters. Commissioned U.S. Navy warships, they never saw their “home” country.
This included six captured Spanish gunboats: Elcano, Villalobos, General Alava, Pompey, Callao, and Quiros, that were commissioned in 1900-1903 at Cavite under their old names (and often with old crew members recruited from the locals!)
USS ELCANO (PG-38) at Cavite Navy Yard, Philippine Island circa 1900, before being refitted for the U.S. Navy. Note she has been white-washed and her awning shown above in Spanish service deleted. Description: Courtesy of LCDR John E. Lewis, 1945. Catalog #: NH 54353
They generally remained in service into the 1920s.
Others, such as USS Palos (Gunboat No. 16) and her sistership Monocacy (Gunboat No. 17), built for service on the Yangtze, were pre-constructed at Mare Island in 1912; dismantled, then shipped to China where they were laid down at Shanghai Dock and Engineering Co, and commissioned there in 1914.
The sisters were even interned in China during a four-month period in which the U.S. was at war with Germany but China was not.
U.S. Gunboats Palos and Monocacy at Shanghai anchored alongside the Standard Oil Dock, Shanghai, China. The USN gunboats were interned by China in April 1917 and released from internment and returned to duty in August. They would serve into the 1930s and never saw U.S. waters. 80-G-1025942
Six new craft were designed and built in 1928 in Shanghai for the YANGPAT, of three differing sizes: USS Guam and Tutuilla (380 tons) USS Panay and Oahu (450 tons), USS Luzon and Mindanao (560 tons), all of which were commissioned there.
Infamously, Panay was lost 1937 in what many later deemed the first U.S.-Japanese clash of WWII. The remaining five were lost in 1941.
USS Panay (PR-5) On standardization trial of 17.73 knots, on 30 August 1928, off Woosung, China. NH 50800
Subsequently, when going back to check on one of the Canberra articles mentioned, the title had been stealth changed to “USS Canberra (LCS-30) became the first US Navy ship in history to be commissioned in Australia” without explanation although the URL remained https://gagadget.com/en/weapons/284710-uss-canberra-lcs-30-became-the-first-us-navy-ship-in-history-to-be-commissioned-outside-of-the-country/
Reblogged this on Dave Loves History.
They should have just said first commissioning ceremony (or if they wanted to hedge their bets further “first formal commissioning ceremony” or even further “first formal commissioning ceremony in the modern sense”) and they likely would have been alright. Of course, no ceremony is needed at all to commission a ship in the USN – it can be done purely administratively as happened during COVID for several ships. Have no doubt that this was likely what was done in the case of the gunboats being commissioned for service in the Far East in the early 20th century. Clearly the CNO, SECNAV, and their local nation counterparts didn’t show up to witness or partcipate in the commissioning – nor was there members of the diplomatic corps of either country involved (like foreign ministers, etc.) as there were in Sydney last week. Even the daughter of a former president gave an address for Canberra’s commissioning (Caroline Kennedy is the current Ambassador to Australia). Was there for the whole week and can safely say there’s probably never been anything like this done before – it truly was unique by all accounts (not just our opinion).