The ''Dubuque'' class gunboats were a class of

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...

s built by the United States prior to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The class was designed in 1903. The

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

commissioned 2 ''Dubuque''-class gunboats in 1903. ''Dubuque''s had a design speed of 12 knots, and a main armament of six 4" rapid-fire guns and four 6-pounder rapid-fire guns in single mounts.

Design

In 1902, two gunboats, and were ordered from Gas Engine & Power Company & Charles L. Seabury Company of New York for survey and patrol duties in the Caribbean. They were long between perpendiculars and

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

, with an unusual high and rounded bow, fitted with a

bowsprit The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay A bobstay is a part of the rigging of a sailing boat or ship. Its purpose is to counteract the upward tensio ...

. Beam was with a

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

of .

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

was . The hull was of composite construction, with steel above the waterline and wood below. Two

Babcock & Wilcox Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...

boilers fed vertical triple-expansion steam engines rated at , driving two shafts and giving a speed of . Two tall and thin funnels were fitted.Friedman 2009, p. 417.Chesneau and Kolesnik 1979, p. 167.

Ships

References

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubuque -class gunboat Ships built in Morris Heights, Bronx World War I patrol vessels of the United States World War II patrol vessels of the United States 1905 ships