USS Gwin (TB-16)

Ferryboat USS Cyane (YFB-4), ex-USS Gwin (TB-16), in 1922
History
United States
Name:	Gwin
Namesake:	Lt. Commander William Gwin
Ordered:	10 June 1896 (authorised)
Builder:	Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., Bristol, RI
Laid down:	14 April 1897
Launched:	15 November 1897
Commissioned:	4 April 1898
Decommissioned:	30 April 1925
Renamed:	Cyane, 11 April 1918
Reclassified:	YFB-4, 17 July 1920
Struck:	30 April 1925
Identification:	TB-16 Hull symbol:YFB-4
Fate:	sold for scrap, 24 September 1925
General characteristics [1]
Class and type:	Talbot-class torpedo boat
Displacement:	46 long tons (47 t)[2]
Length:	100 ft (30 m)
Beam:	12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
Draft:	3 ft 3 in (0.99 m) (mean)[2]
Installed power:	1 × Normand boiler 850 ihp (630 kW)
Propulsion:	vertical triple expansion engine 1 × screw propellers
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) 20.88 kn (24.03 mph; 38.67 km/h) (Speed on Trial)[2]
Complement:	16 officers and enlisted
Armament:	1 × 1-pounder (37 mm (1.46 in)) guns 1 × 18 in (460 mm) torpedo tubes

The first USS Gwin (Torpedo Boat No. 16/TB-16/YFB-4), was launched 15 November 1897 by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., Bristol, Rhode Island, and commissioned at Newport 4 April 1898, Lt, (j.g.) C. S. Williams in command.

She departed Newport 24 June, cruising down the eastern seaboard as far as Florida, thence on patrol off Cuba from 6 August to 14 August 1898 as America went to war with Spain. She returned north to Annapolis 31 August and served as cadet training ship for the US Naval Academy until placed in reserve at Norfolk on 10 July 1903.

Gwin remained in reserve until June 1908 when she began assisting in experimental torpedo work out of Newport, Rhode Island. This duty terminated 18 April 1914 when Gwin decommissioned for use as a ferryboat. On 11 April 1918 her name was changed to Cyane, and she was re-classified YFB-4 on 17 July 1920. Her name was struck from the Navy Register 30 April 1925 and she was sold for scrapping 24 September 1925.

References

1. "USS Gwin (TB-16)". Navsource.org. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
2. "Table 11 - Ships on Navy List June 30, 1919". Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office: 725. 1921.

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Additional technical data from Gardiner, Robert (1979). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press. p. 161. ISBN 0-85177-133-5.

External links

• Photo gallery of Gwin at NavSource Naval History