USS Manila (AP, 1898)

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USS Manila in 1903
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Class:        MANILA
Design:        Passenger steamer, 1883
Displacement (tons):        1,750 displ.
Dimensions (feet):        209.25' x 31.2' x 13.6' mn
Original Armament:        2-4.7" bronze (1891 and 1898)
Later armaments:        2-4.7" 2-6pdr 2-3pdr 4-37mm 2-25mm (1900); 2-4.7" 2-6pdr 2-3pdr 2-1pdr 2-mg (1902)
Complement:        93
Speed (kts.):        10
Propulsion (HP):        750
Machinery:        Compound, 1 screw

Construction:

AP	Name	Acq.	Builder	Keel	Launch	Commiss.
--	MANILA	4 May 98	Ramage & Ferguson	--	8 Aug 83	4 Jul 98

Disposition:

AP	Name	Decomm.	Strike	Disposal	Fate	MA Sale
--	MANILA	1 Jul 03	7 May 13	4 May 14	Sold	--

Class Notes:
In August 1883 the shipyard of Ramage & Ferguson & Co. in Leith, Scotland, launched the iron screw steamer CARRIEDO for the Spanish mail service between Singapore and Manila. She was to run in connection with the French Messageries Maritimes mail steamers that operated between Marseilles and China. She was expected to be the fastest and most elaborately fitted up passenger steamer owned in the Philippine Islands. Large first-class passenger accommodations were provided aft, the dining and smoking rooms being on the upper deck with sleeping berths below and great attention was given to ventilation for the tropics. Second-class passengers were accommodated forward and the ships' officers were beneath a long bridge amidships. Other modern features included steam winches and a steam windlass. She reached almost 12 knots on trials. The CARRIEDO was built to the order of Messrs. Ker, Bolton, and Co. of Glasgow for Messrs. Reyes and Co. of Manila. The Spanish government purchased her in 1886 and assigned her as a transport to their naval forces based in the Philippines.

When the U.S. gunboat PETREL was sent into the inner harbor (Bakor Bay) at Cavite after the Battle of Manila Bay on 1 May 98 to destroy the Spanish gunboats there, she found one vessel unhurt, the transport MANILA. This ship lay in three feet of mud near the navy-yard, and her officers begged that she not be destroyed because she was unarmed and was a coast survey vessel. She was spared and on 4 May 98 the Americans towed her off, raised steam on her, and anchored her near the squadron. She proved to be a handsome steamer of about two thousand tons and was laden with supplies and five hundred tons of coal, from which the cruiser RALEIGH supplied her bunkers. Taken into the U.S. Navy, she was first commissioned on 20 Jul 98 and attached to the Asiatic Station. During the Philippine Insurrection she was actively engaged in patrol duty, convoying troops, cruising on station, etc. She participated in the bombardment of San Fabian on 7-9 Nov 99 and sent a landing party ashore on 16 Nov 99 during the taking of Zamboanga. She was station ship at Cavite during the second quarter of 1901 and the first quarter of 1902 and was at Mare Island by 30 Jun 02. She was placed out of commission at Mare Island on 1 Jul 03.

MANILA was described in Navy annual reports as a transport in 1899 to 1903 and as a gunboat while in reserve in 1904-1906. She was converted to a prison ship at Mare Island in 1905-1906 and was fitted with 38 cells. Stricken and ordered sold in 1913, she was offered for sale by the Navy Department on 27 Jan 14 with bids to be opened 4 May 14. She was sold to J. W. Strong and re-entered merchant service in the Far East. She was sunk in a collision in Chinese waters in 1923.

Ship Notes:

AP	Name	Notes
--	MANILA	Ex Spanish transport MANILA, ex merc. CARRIEDO 1886 (completed Sep 83). Merc. MANILA 1914, WANLI 1920. Sunk in collision at Tsin Shan Tei, Shantung Peninsula, on 21 May 23.