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USS Vicksburg (Gunboat # 11, later PG-11), 1897-1921

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USS Vicksburg, a 1010-ton Annapolis class gunboat built at Bath, Maine, was commissioned in October 1897. She served briefly in the Caribbean early in 1898 and in May, soon after war began with Spain, took station off Cuba to enforce the blockade. This duty lasted until August, when the conflict ended, and included the capture of three sailing vessels. Vicksburg operated in the Caribbean and off the U.S. East Coast for nearly nine more months. After being out of commission from May 1899 until May 1900, the gunboat began a long voyage through the Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal and Indian Ocean to the Philippines, where she arrived early in February 1901. She played an active role in the pacification of the islands, and later cruised to China and Japan. In early 1904, as the Russo-Japanese War commenced, she protected American interests at Chemulpo, Korea.

Vicksburg left Asian waters in June 1904 and, after crossing the Pacific, was decommissioned at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California. Returning to active service in May 1909, she operated off Mexico, Central America and California until June 1912. She then became a training ship for the Washington Naval Militia, a job lasting, with a short interruption in 1914 for service off Mexico, until the United States entered World War I in April 1917. During much of that year and the first part of 1918 Vicksburg patrolled off the Mexican coast, keeping watch for possible hostile undertakings there. Among her activities was the capture, in March 1918, of the schooner Alexander Agassiz with five Germans on board. The gunboat spent the rest of the war and most of 1919 in California waters. In October 1919 she was assigned to the Washington State Nautical School for training service.

Designated PG-11 in July 1920, Vicksburg was stricken from the Navy list in May 1921 and transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard. Her name was changed to Alexander Hamilton August 1922. Employed as a Coast Guard Academy training ship until 1930, she then became station ship at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland. Renamed Beta during the mid-1930s, the old ship was used as a machinery training facility during much of World War II. She was placed out of service at the end of 1944 and disposed of in March 1946.

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