USS Yantic (IX-32), a wooden-hulled screw gunboat built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, was launched on 19 March 1864 and commissioned on 12 August 1864, Lt. Comdr. Thomas C. Harris in command.

Civil War, 1864–1865

The day after her commissioning, 13 August, 1864, Yantic — in company with the tugs and — sailed in pursuit of the Confederate pirate CSS Tallahassee

CSS Tallahassee

The CSS Tallahassee was a twin-screw steamer and cruiser in the Confederate States Navy, purchased in 1864, and used for commerce raiding off the Atlantic coast.-History:...

. The gunboat went to the northward and eastward of Nantucket during her cruise but, as her commanding officer reported, "obtained no information to justify a longer search for the piratical vessel." Consequently, after a week at sea, Yantic returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard and commenced her post-trial repairs.

Meanwhile, CSS Tallahassee had left Halifax, Nova Scotia

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

, at 13:00 on 20 August, before any Federal warships could arrive, setting in motion a search. Agitation in Washington over Tallahassee resulted in Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles

Gideon Welles

Gideon Welles was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869. His buildup of the Navy to successfully execute blockades of Southern ports was a key component of Northern victory of the Civil War...

' sending identical telegrams to the commandants of the navy yards at New York and Philadelphia on the 20th, each asking what vessels were ready for sea.

Yantic subsequently received orders directing her to proceed to Wood's Hole, Mass., where she was to await further orders. She arrived there at 10:00 on 13 September. Yantic later operated off the eastern seaboard between Hampton Roads and New York and, on 1 November, visited Halifax — a port swarming with "secessionists and other sympathizers" — to obtain information on the activities of CSS Olustee (as the Confederates had renamed Tallahassee).

After the Confederate ship had managed to elude her pursuers, Yantic joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Wilmington, N.C. During the Union's first attempt to take Fort Fisher

First Battle of Fort Fisher

The First Battle of Fort Fisher, was a siege fought from December 23 to December 27, 1864, was a failed attempt by Union forces to capture the fort guarding Wilmington, North Carolina, the South's last major port on the Atlantic Ocean...

, N.C., on Christmas Eve 1864, the screw gunboat suffered her first casualties. At 15:00 that afternoon, during the bombardment phase of the action, the ship's 100-pounder rifled gun burst, mortally wounding the division officer, the gun captain, and four men. On his own initiative, Comdr. Harris — thinking his ship "badly shattered" and not knowing the extent of the damage — ordered his ship hauled out of line. After obtaining medical assistance from the steamer Fort Jackson and reporting the assessed damage to the flagship Malvern, Harris took Yantic back into action, opening fire with his remaining effective guns, the 30-pounder rifle and a 9-inch Dahlgren gun

Dahlgren gun

Dahlgren guns were muzzle loading naval artillery designed by Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren USN, mostly used in the period of the American Civil War. Dahlgren's design philosophy evolved from an accidental explosion in 1849 of a 32-pounder being tested for accuracy, killing a gunner...

.

On Christmas Day 1864, Yantic assisted in the debarking of the troops of General Benjamin Butler

Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician)

Benjamin Franklin Butler was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts....

 and covered the landing operations. At 1400, on the 25th, as Lt. Comdr. Harris later reported, the troops landed "amidst deafening and encouraging cheers from the men-of-war and from the troops still aboard the transports, cheers which were echoed by the fleet by a fire that elicited but a feeble response from the fort." General Butler, however, "to the surprise and mortification of all" (as Harris later recounted), recalled the troops; and the landing operation ceased.

The first Union attempt to reduce and take Fort Fisher

Fort Fisher

Fort Fisher was a Confederate fort during the American Civil War. It protected the vital trading routes of the port at Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1861 until its capture by the Union in 1865....

 thus proved to be a dismal failure; but, before another attempt was made, General Butler was replaced by a more dynamic and aggressive man, Major General Alfred Terry

Alfred Terry

Alfred Howe Terry was a Union general in the American Civil War and the military commander of the Dakota Territory from 1866 to 1869 and again from 1872 to 1886.-Early life and career:...

. Yantic provided a landing party and gunfire support for the second amphibious attack

Second Battle of Fort Fisher

The Second Battle of Fort Fisher was a joint assault by Union Army and naval forces against Fort Fisher, outside Wilmington, North Carolina, near the end of the American Civil War...

 that commenced on 13 January 1865. In the action — a bloody one in which the sailors and marines of the naval landing force charged on the run into withering Confederate gunfire and suffered accordingly grievous casualties in the frontal assault — Fort Fisher was finally taken on 15 January. During the battle, Yantic lost three men — two on 15 January and one, who had been wounded mortally on the 15th, who died on the 20th.

The next month, Yantic participated in the capture of Fort Anderson

Battle of Fort Anderson

The Battle of Fort Anderson, also known as the Battle of Deep Gully, took place March 13–15, 1863, in Craven County, North Carolina, as part of Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's Tidewater operations during the American Civil War....

, N.C., between 17 and 19 February, in her second major landing operation in a little over a month. For the remainder of the Civil War, Yantic served on blockade duties, as part of the successful Union interdiction operation, preventing trade by sea with the Confederacy.

1865–1882

For a little over three more decades, Yantic "showed the flag" of the United States in the West Indies, in South American waters, and in the Far East — as well as along the eastern seaboard of the United States. After operating fairly close to home from 1865 to 1872, she then cruised to the Asiatic Station, where she operated for the next four years, 1873 to 1877.

During that particular tour of duty, Yantic stood ready to provide assistance for Americans and protection for their property. While operating with the Asiatic Squadron — precursor of the Asiatic Fleet and the 7th Fleet — the gunboat put ashore her landing force at Shanghai, China, on 3 May 1874, in company with the landing party from the sidewheeler to aid in quelling a riot by the local natives.

At other times during that Asiatic Squadron deployment, Yantic conducted a regular routine of cruises to ports ranging from Canton, Borneo, the Philippine Islands, and Hong Kong. In late 1874, when the Pacific Mail Steamer Japan foundered, Yantic searched for her. In the spring of 1875, the gunboat later protected the salvagers of Japans cargo from pirates.
Subsequently, Yantics crew took part in celebrations attending the unveiling of the statue of Admiral David G. Farragut in Washington, D.C., on 25 April 1881, before sailing later that spring to Mexican waters. In June, at Progreso, Yucatan, she investigated the detention of the American bark Acacia before returning northward to familiar waters off the eastern seaboard of the United States. In October 1881, Yantic also took part in observances commemorating the centennial of the Battle of Groton Heights

Battle of Groton Heights

The Battle of Groton Heights was a battle of the American Revolutionary War fought on September 6, 1781 between a small Connecticut militia force led by Lieutenant Colonel William Ledyard and the more numerous British forces led by Brigadier General Benedict Arnold and Lieutenant...

 and in festivities celebrating the centennial of the American victory at Yorktown, Va.

1883–1917

In June 1883, Yantic headed for the coasts of Greenland, Comdr. Frank Wildes in command, as tender for the steamer Proteus, the latter carrying the men of the second relief party sent out to search for the exploration party led by Lt. Adolphus Greely

Adolphus Greely

Adolphus Washington Greely , was an American Polar explorer, a United States Army officer and a recipient of the Medal of Honor.-Early military career:...

. After touching at Disco

Disko Island

Disko Island is a large island in Baffin Bay, off the west coast of Greenland. It has an area of , making it the second largest island of Greenland and one of the 100 largest islands in the world...

, Upernavik

Upernavik

Upernavik is a small town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,129 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the thirteenth-largest town in Greenland. Due to the small size of the settlement, everything is within walking distance...

, and Littleton Island

Littleton Island (Arctic)

Littleton Island is an island approximately from Greenland’s coast right in Smith Sound. It is about south of the island today called Hans Island. Around it and the coast of Greenland lay dozens of tiny Islands, and Kane names one of them Hans Island after Hans Hendrik, the native Greenlandic...

, Yantic returned to New York on 29 September 1883. She carried back with her the men of the relief party, led by Lt. Garlington, and also the officers and men of Proteus, which had been crushed in heavy ice on 23 July 1883. Unfortunately, neither ship found any trace of the ill-fated Greely expedition.

Yantic "showed the flag" along the eastern seaboard and into the waters of South America and the West Indies from 1884 to 1897. In 1898, she was then loaned to the naval militia of the state of Michigan and served as training ship on the Great Lakes until 1917.

Training ship, 1917–1929

With America's entry into World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the Navy expanded. Accordingly, the Civil War gunboat was recommissioned in 1917 and assigned as a training ship at the Naval Training Station, Great Lakes

Naval Station Great Lakes

Naval Station Great Lakes is the home of the United States Navy's only boot camp, located near the city of North Chicago, Illinois, in Lake County. Important tenant commands include the Recruit Training Command, Training Support Center and Navy Recruiting District Chicago...

, Illinois. After the armistice, she was struck from the Navy list on 24 July 1919 and ordered sold. However, the venerable Yantic was withdrawn from the sale list on 31 December of the same year and again assigned duty as a training ship — this time with the Naval Reserve Forces of the 9th, 10th, and 11th Naval Districts. Commissioned on 15 May 1921, Yantic — designated IX-32 — operated out of Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

, until 30 June 1926, when she was decommissioned and again loaned to the state of Michigan.

Yantic suddenly sank alongside the dock at the foot of Townsend Avenue, Detroit, Michigan

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

, on 22 October 1929. Subsequent investigation revealed that the sinking had been caused by structural weakening, owing to "natural deterioration." Her hull is still buried in a filled-in boat slip in Gabriel Richard Park; her anchor sits in front of the Detroit Naval Armory

Detroit Naval Armory

The Detroit Naval Armory is a located at 7600 East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It is also known as the R. Thornton Brodhead Armory...

. She was struck from the Navy list on 9 May 1930. the ship log is nowhere to be found.

external LInks

• Photo gallery at navsource.org