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On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seed that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory.

-- General Douglas MacArthur

USS Wilmington (Gunboat # 8, PG-8), 1897-1946

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USS Wilmington, a 1571-ton gunboat built at Newport News, Virginia, was commissioned in May 1897. Her initial service was in the Atlantic. During the Spanish-American War, she operated off Cuba, taking part in actions at Cardenas on 11 May 1898 and at Manzanillo on 18 July. In 1899-1900, she operated in the Caribbean and off South America and made cruises far up the Orinoco and Amazon rivers.

Wilmington next went to Asiatic waters, remaining there from 1901 to 1922. She was assigned as a training ship in the Great Lakes in 1923. Designated IX-30, and renamed Dover in 1941, the gunboat returned to salt water during World War II. She briefly served as an Atlantic convoy escort in late 1942, then became an armed guard training ship at New Orleans. Dover decommissioned in December 1945 and was sold for scrapping a year later.

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