armored ship Thursday

this Thursday we have perhaps the smallest USN armored ship USS Petrel gunboat #2. Petrel was commissioned into the USN 12/10/1889. she was 176'3" in length and displaced 892t. her main armament was quite heavy for her size so she was often known as the "Baby Battleship". her main battery was four 6" breech loading rifles, two 3pdr. rifles, one 1pdr. rifle, two 37mm guns and 2 gatling guns. she had a 3/8"-5/16" armored deck over the machinery spaces. this deck was so light it was just called a weather tight deck. Petrel was powered with a horizontal compound steam engine of 1,045ihp. and with a single screw was able to make 11.5kts. top speed. one of the slowest of the USN's armed vessels. she served in the North Atlantic Squadron 1889-91. transferred to the Asiatic Squadron she served there until 1911. she was on Bering Sea Patrol in 1894. in 1898 she became part of Admiral George Dewey's fleet in 1898 and fought at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Phillippines. during the battle Petrel destroyed 6 Spanish ships and captured the Navy Yard at Cavite. here she also captured two Spanish tugboats. not bad for a small slow gunboat. Petrel served on Phillippine operations until the end of 1899 at which time she was de-commissioned at Cavite. USS Petrel was re-commissioned in 1910 and served in the North Atlantic and Caribbean 1912-1915. in 1916 she began operations with the American Patrol in Boston, MA and served here until the end of WW1. finally de-commissioned on 7/15/1919 USS Petrel was finally sold out of the navy in 11/1/1920.