| Wyoming was contracted 5 October 1898 to Union Iron Works,
San Francisco, California; laid down on 11 April 1898; launched 8 September
1900; sponsored by Miss Hattie Warren, daughter of Senator Francis E. Warren
of Wyoming; and commissioned 8 December 1902, Commander V. L. Cottman
command. |
| After fitting out at Mare Island, Wyoming ran her trials
and exercises in San Pablo and San Francisco Bays and conducted exercises
and target practice off the southern California coast through the summer
of 1903 before she headed south in the autumn, reaching Acapulco, Mexico,
on 31 October. She subsequently shifted further south, to Columbia, where
a civil war threatened American lives and interests. The monitor accordingly
arrived in Panamanian waters on 13 November and sailed up the Tuira River
in company with the protected cruiser
Boston, with a
company of marines under Lt. S. A. M. Patterson, USMC, and Lt. C. B. Taylor,
USMC, embarked, to land at "Yariza" and observe the movements of Colombian
troops. |
| The presence of American armed might there and elsewhere ultimately
resulted in independence for the Panamanian. During that time, Wyoming
anchored at the Bay of San Miguel on 15 December. The following day, a boat
with 11 marines embarked left for the port of La Palma, under sail. While
Boston departed the following day. There, Lt. Patterson, USMC, with
a detachment of 25 Marines, commandeered the steamer Tuira and took
her upriver. While the marines were gone, a party of evacuated American nationals
came out to the monitor in her gig. |
| Meanwhile, Patterson's marines and joined the ship's landing force
at the village of Real to keep an eye on American interests there. Back at
La Palma, Wyoming continued to take on board American nationals fleeing
from the troubled land and kept up a steady stream of supplies to her landing
party of bluejackets and marines at Real. Ultimately, when the need for them
had passed, the landing party returned to the ship on Christmas Eve. |
| Wyoming remained in Panamanian waters into the spring of
1904 keeping a figurative eye on local conditions before she departed Panama
Bay on 19 April, bound for Acapulco. After remaining at that port from 27
to 29 April, Wyoming visited Pichilinque, Mexico, from 9 to 9 May.
She subsequently reached San Diego on the 14th for a nine-day stay. |
| For the remainder of 1904, Wyoming operated off the west
coast, ranging from Brighton Beach and Ventura, California, to Bellingham,
Washington, and Portland, Oregon. She attended a regatta at Astoria, Oregon,
from 22 to 27 August and later took part in ceremonies at the "unveiling
of monuments" at Griffin Bay, Dan Juan Islands, and Roche Harbor before she
entered the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, on 22
October. |
| Wyoming was overhauled there into the following year. She
departed the Pacific Northwest on 26 January 1905 and steamed via San Francisco
to Magdalena Bay, Mexico, for target practice. Later cruising to Acapulco
and Panamanian waters, Wyoming also operated off San Salvador and Port Harford,
California, before she returned to Mare Island on n30 July to be decommissioned
on 219 August 1905. |
| Recommissioned on 8 October 1908, Comdr. John J. Knapp in command,
Wyoming spent over two months at Mare Island refitting. Converted
to oil fuel -- the first ship to do so in the United States Navy -- she underwent
tests for her oil-burning installation at San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and
San Diego into March 1909. |
| During those tests, Wyoming was renamed Cheyenne
on 1 January 1909, in order to clear the name Wyoming for the projected
Battleship No. 32. The ship consequently underwent more tests on her oil-burning
equipment at Santa Barbara, San Pedro, and San Diego before she was placed
in reserve at Mare Island on 8 Jule. She was decommissioned on 13 November
of the same year. |
| Recommissioned, in reserve, on 11 July 1910, Lt. Comdr. C. T.
Owens in command, Cheyenne was assigned to the Washington (state)
Naval Militia in 1911 and operated in an "in commission, in reserve" status
into 1913. Shifting to the Puget Sound Navy Yard early in February on 1913,
Cheyenne was fitted out as a submarine tender over the ensuing months.
Finally, on 20 August 1913, Cheyenne was placed in "full commission,"
Lt. Keneth Heron in command. |
| The newly converted submarine tender operated in the Puget Sound
region until 11 December, when she sailed for San Francisco. In the ensuing
months, Cheyenne tendered the submarines of the 2d Submarine Division,
Pacific Torpedo Flotilla, at Mare Island, San Francisco, and San Pedro, into
April of 1914. Later that spring, when troubled conditions in Mexico threatened
American lives and property, Cheyenne interrupted her submarine tending
duties twice, once in late April and once in mid-May, to embark refugees
at Ensenada and San Quentin, Mexico, transporting them both times to San
Diego. |
| Cheyenne then resumed her submarine tending operations
on the west coast, continuing them into 1917. On 10 April of that year, four
days after the United States entered World War I -- she proceeded to Port
Angeles, Pacific Fleet, in company with the submarines H-1 (Submarine
No. 28) and H-2 (Submarine No. 29),, arriving there on the 16th.
Subsequently shifting to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Cheyenne remained at
that port for most of a month, taking on stores and provisions, loading
ammunition, and receiving men on board to fill the vacancies in her complement.
On 28 April, Cheyenne guarded N-1 (Submarine No. 35) as she ran trials
off Port Townsend, Washington. On 4 May, the warship returned to Puget Sound
for drydock and yard work. Completing that refit late in May, Cheyenne
shifted southward to San Pedro, California, where she established a submarine
base and training camp for personnel for submarine duty. |
| Cheyenne subsequently joined the Atlantic Fleet, serving
as flagship and tender for Division 3, Flotilla 1, Submarine Forces, Atlantic
Fleet. On 17 December 1918, the ship was transferred to Division 1, American
Patrol Detachment. While with that force, Cheyenne lay at Tampico,k
Mexico, protecting American lives and property from 15 January to 9 October
1919. Proceeding north soon thereafter, the warship arrived at the Philadelphia
Navy Yard on 23 October 1919, where she was decommissioned on 3 January
1920. |
| While inactive at Philadelphia, the ship was classified as a
miscellaneous auxiliary, IX-4, in the fleetwide designation of alphanumeric
hull numbers of 17 July 1920. Subsequently recommissioned at Philadelphia
on 22 September of the same year, Cheyenne was towed to Baltimore,
Maryland, by the tug Lykens (AT-56). |
| Based there, Cheyenne was assigned to training duty with
Naval Reserve Force (USNRF) personnel of subdistrict "A," 5th Naval District,
and trained USNRF reservists through 1925. Basing at BAltimore, she occasionally
visited Hampton Roads during her cruises. ON 21 January 1926, the minesweeper
Owl (AM-2) took Cheyenne in tow and took her to Norfolk and
thence to Philadelphia where she arrived on 27 January for
inactivation. |
| Decommissioned on 1 June 1926, Cheyenne was struck from
the Navy list on 25 January 1937, and her stripped-down hulk was sold for
scrap on 20 April 1939.. |
| Of the Arkansas class, she was one of the last group of
monitors to be constructed for the U.S. Navy although the navies of Great
Britain and Italy built and used monitors for shore bombardment during World
War I and the former used them during World War II as well. Single turreted
monitors, they mounted the most modern heavy guns in the U.S. Navy at the
time they were built, 12 inch 40 caliber weapons. The Arkansas class
did not see any combat during World War I and instead served as submarine
tenders. |
| Alexander C. Brown, writing in the Society of Naval Architects
and Marine Engineers Historical transactions noted in a penetrating comment
that: |
"Monitors found their final employment as submarine tenders in World War
I for which their low freeboard hulls made them well suited. It is significant
to note, however, that in this humble capacity they were ministering to the
needs of that type of craft which had logically replaced them for as initially
envisaged monitors were designed to combine heavy striking power with concealment
and the presentation of a negligible target area..." |
Displacement, 3,225; Length, 225'1"; Beam, 50';
Speed, 11.8 knots; Complement, 220 (approximately); Armament,
two 12-inch breech loading rifles and assorted 4-inch and 6-pdrs. ; Armor:
Turret 10", side 8" |
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