USAT Burnside

USAT ''Burnside'' was the first American cable ship in the Pacific. Between 1900 and 1905 she laid 3,000 miles of submarine cable which connected many parts of the Philippines and Alaska to the rest of the world for the first time in history. She was responsible for maintenance of the Army cables on the Pacific coast of the United States for two decades.

The ship was built in England in 1882 for general freight service between London and Australia. Her initial name was ''Yeoman''. She was sold in 1891 to a Spanish steamship company which renamed her ''Rita''. The ship was at sea when the Spanish-American War was declared and had the bad luck to be taken as a prize by USS ''Yale'' in 1898. The US Army purchased her as a transport, and in 1900 converted her into a cable ship named ''Burnside''.

''Burnside'' was replaced by USAT ''Dellwood'' in 1923. She was sold and scrapped in 1924.

Construction and characteristics

''Yeoman'' was ordered by Wilhelm Lund for his steamship company, the Blue Anchor Line. She was built by Campbell, Macintosh, and Bowstead at the Scotswood Shipyard in Newcastle, England and launched on 25 March 1882.

''Yeoman's'' hull was built of iron plates. She was long, with a beam of and a depth of hold of . Her gross register tonnage was 2,226, and her net register tonnage was 1,427.

Her propeller was originally powered by a coal-fired double-expansion steam engine which was built by T. Clark and Company of Newcastle. It had high, and low-pressure cylinders with diameters of 35 inches, and 68 inches, respectively, with a stroke of 48 inches. The engine was rated at 300 horsepower. This was replaced in 1887 by a triple-expansion engine with cylinders of 25, 38.5 and 63 inches with a stroke of 44 inches. This second engine was built by Wigham Richardson and Company of Newcastle. The more modern engine gave the ship a cruising speed of 12 knots.

Electric lighting and refrigeration were installed on ''Burnside'' at the shipyard of Lewis Nixon in Elizabethport, NJ in December 1898 after the ship was taken over by the Army.

She had a 3 kilowatt radio transmitter aboard in 1909, and was assigned the call sign, "BS". In 1913 her call sign was changed to, "WXR".

In 1913 ''Burnside'' was taken out of service briefly to have new oil-fired boilers installed.

Blue Anchor Line (18821891)

The Blue Anchor Line pioneered regularly scheduled cargo and passenger service between London and Australia. ''Yeoman'' sailed this route, via the Suez Canal, stopping for coal and water at several points along her route. She carried as many as 400 immigrants to Australia on a single trip, and general cargo. Her cargo included livestock, musical instruments, china, furniture, stationary, cutlery, dolls, toys, purses, vases, and more. She made port calls in Adelaide, Fremantle, Albany, Hobart, Launceston, and Sydney.

Linea de Vapores Serra (18911898)

Sometime in 1891 Lund sold ''Yeoman'' to a Spanish steamship company, Linea de Vapores Serra. Her name was changed to ''Rita'', and her homeport became Bilbao.

The ship hauled general cargos between ports in North America across the Atlantic to Europe. North American port calls include Boston, Galveston, Norfolk, Pensacola, Puerto Rico, and St John. European port calls included Liverpool, and Havre.

In October 1892 ''Rita'' caught fire outside of Galveston while bound for Liverpool. The fire was extinguished, but 123 bales of cotton were damaged.

US Army service (18981924)

Spanish-American War (18981900)

On 25 April 1898, Congress declared war on Spain, beginning the Spanish-American War. An immediate objective was to defeat Spain in the Caribbean, taking Cuba and Puerto Rico. The US Navy began patrolling off the islands. On 8 May 1898 ''Rita'' was sailing from Liverpool to Puerto Rico with a cargo of coal when she encountered USS ''Yale'' off Culebra Island. A chase ensued, but ''Yale'' was somewhat faster, and armed with 6-inch guns. Several warning shots were fired which ''Rita'' ignored, but when a shell exploded over the head of her captain, the ship was surrendered. A nine-man prize crew, under the command of ''Yale's'' first officer, W. B. Porter, took her in to Charleston, South Carolina.

''Rita'' was purchased by the US Army Quartermaster's Department from the U.S. Prize Court on 9 July 1898 for $125,000 and assigned to the Army Transport Service. The Army reckoned her capacity at 15 officers and 700 men. The day after her purchase she began her new career as a troop transport.

On 10 July 1898 ''Rita'' sailed for Cuba with reinforcements for the American campaign. She was filled to capacity with the 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 6th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, less Companies D and M. She sailed from Tampa to Ponce, Puerto Rico on 27 July 1898. Over the next two years the ship made numerous trips between the American mainland, Cuba, and Puerto Rico laden with personnel, food, medical supplies, and other equipment for the Army.

To mark her transition to military service, the ship was renamed in February 1899.  ''Rita'' became United States Army Transport ''Burnside'', named for Civil War General Ambrose Burnside.

Prior to the Spanish-American War there was a Cuban revolutionary army on the island seeking independence from Spain. This army assisted American forces to defeat the Spanish. Spain's ceding of Cuba to the United States did not address the fate of the 30,000 revolutionary soldiers still in the field and owed substantial back pay. Seeking to buy peace on the island, the United States offered to pay each Cuban soldier $100 in return for the orderly disbanding of this Cuban Army. ''Burnside'' found herself with $3 million in cash aboard, including 2,500,000 dimes and 200,000 nickels, anchored in Havana

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