View source for USS Topeka (PG-35)

{{short description|Gunboat of the United States Navy}}
{{other ships|USS Topeka}}

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|Ship image= [[Image:USS Topeka (pg-35).jpg|300px|USS ''Topeka'' (pg-35)]]
|Ship caption=USS ''Topeka'' (pg-35)
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag={{USN flag|1929}}
|Ship name=USS ''Topeka''
|Ship namesake=[[Topeka, Kansas]]
|Ship ordered=
|Ship builder=[[Howaldtswerke]], [[Kiel, Germany]]
|Ship laid down=
|Ship launched=1881 Built for the [[Peruvian Navy]], retained in England
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|Ship christened=
|Ship completed= 
|Ship acquired= 2 April 1898
|Ship commissioned= 2 April 1898
|Ship decommissioned=15 February 1899
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship recommissioned=15 August 1900
|Ship decommissioned=7 September 1905 
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship recommissioned=14 June 1916
|Ship decommissioned=14 September 1916 
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship recommissioned=24 March 1919
|Ship decommissioned=21 November 1919 
|Ship reclassified=*PG-35, 17 July 1920
*IX-35, 1 July 1921
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=yes
|Ship recommissioned=2 July 1923 
|Ship decommissioned=2 December 1929
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|Ship out of service=
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|Ship reclassified=
|Ship refit=
|Ship struck=2 January 1930
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|Ship fate=Sold for scrapping, 13 May 1930
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{{Infobox ship characteristics
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|Header caption=
|Ship type= [[Gunboat]]
|Ship displacement={{convert|2255|LT|t|0|abbr=on}} normal
|Ship length={{convert|259|ft|4|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam={{convert|35|ft|m|abbr=on}} at the waterline
|Ship draft={{convert|16|ft|5|in|m|abbr=on}} aft
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|Ship speed={{convert|16|kn|lk=in}}

|Ship boats=
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|Ship troops=
|Ship complement=167 officers and enlisted
|Ship armament=*6 × [[4"/40 caliber gun|{{convert|4|in|mm|abbr=on}} gun]]
*6 × [[QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss#US service|3-pounder gun]]s
*2 × [[QF 1-pounder pom-pom|1-pounder gun]]s
*1 × Colt [[machine gun]] ([[M1895 Colt–Browning machine gun]])
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'''USS ''Topeka'' (PG-35)''' was a [[gunboat]] of the [[United States Navy]].

The ship was built in 1881 as the Socrates-class steamer (and prospectively, the Lima-Class cruiser Callao) '''''Diogenes''''' by the [[Howaldtswerke]] at [[Kiel, Germany]]. Acquired by the Navy from the [[Thames Iron Works]], London, England, on 2 April 1898, she was renamed '''''Topeka''''', and placed in commission the same day.

==Service history==

===Spanish–American War, 1898&ndash;1899===
''Topeka'' cleared [[Falmouth, Cornwall|Falmouth]], England, on 19 April 1898 and arrived at [[Tompkinsville, New York]], on 1 May 1898. The following day, she moved to the [[New York Navy Yard]] to begin a two-month overhaul during which she received her armament and generally prepared for duty on the Cuban blockade. The gunboat departed New York on 30 June 1898 and, after a five-day stop at [[Key West, Florida]], joined the blockading forces off [[Havana]] on 11 July 1898. That same day, she was assigned station off [[Nipe Bay]], located on the northeastern shore of [[Cuba]] almost directly opposite [[Santiago de Cuba]] on the island's southeastern coast. On 17 July 1898, she and {{USS|Maple|1893|6}} captured the Spanish [[sloop]] ''Domingo Aurelio'' off Nipe Bay. Four days later, ''Topeka'' joined gunboat {{USS|Annapolis|PG-10|2}}, armed [[yacht]] {{USS|Wasp|1893|2}}, and armed [[tugboat|tug]] {{USS|Leyden|1865|2}} in a foray into Nipe Bay. The four warships encountered no real resistance from the Spanish and, therefore, easily captured the port and sank the {{ship|Spanish sloop|Jorge Juan||2|up=yes}}, abandoned by her crew, in the [[Battle of Nipe Bay]].

Following the capture of the Bahia de Nipe littoral, ''Topeka'' steamed to [[Key West]] with dispatches. She returned to Cuban waters on 28 July and remained until 5 August, when she again steamed to Key West. She made one more voyage to Cuba in mid-August, visiting [[Port Francis]] on the 14th before heading north on the 15th. After stops at Key West and [[Hampton Roads]], she visited [[Provincetown]] and [[Boston]], Massachusetts, and then arrived at the [[New York Navy Yard]] on 13 September. ''Topeka'' exited [[New York Harbor]] on 22 October and reached [[Philadelphia]] the following day. She remained there until 19 November when she sailed for the Caribbean. During that cruise, she visited [[Cuba]], [[Haiti]], [[San Domingo]], and [[Puerto Rico]] before returning — via [[Norfolk, Virginia]], and [[Newport, Rhode Island]] — to Boston, early in February 1899. On 15 February 1899, ''Topeka'' was placed out of commission at the [[Boston Navy Yard]].

===1900&ndash;1905===
After 18 months of inactivity, the gunboat was re-commissioned at Boston on 15 August 1900. She departed Boston on 19 September and, after a five-day stop at Tompkinsville, New York, embarked upon a training cruise to the Mediterranean on 27 September. Steaming via the [[Azores]] and [[Lisbon]], Portugal, and [[Gibraltar]], she entered the Mediterranean on 7 November. During the cruise, she visited [[Villefranche-sur-Mer|Villefranche]], [[Genoa]], [[Livorno]], [[Naples]], [[Algiers]], and [[Tangier]]. ''Topeka'', transited the [[Strait of Gibraltar]] on 5 January 1901 and, after visits to the [[Azores]] and to [[Saint Vincent (island)|St. Vincent]] and [[Barbados]] in the [[West Indies]], returned to the United States at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 4 March 1901.

For more than a year, ''Topeka'' operated along the southeastern coast of the United States and in the West Indies, working out of Norfolk and the South Carolina ports of [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] and [[Port Royal]]. On 16 May 1902, the gunboat cleared Port Royal and headed — via [[Port-au-Prince]], [[Haiti]], and [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]] to the Caribbean for a summer training cruise in the waters off [[Venezuela]]. Over the next three months, when not conducting gunnery drills, she was a frequent caller at the Venezuelan ports of [[Puerto Cabello]] and [[La Guaira]] as well as at nearby [[Curaçao]] in the [[Dutch West Indies]]. She departed Puerto Cabello on 23 August 1902 and reached Hampton Roads on 5 September. That same day, she entered the [[Norfolk Navy Yard]] for three months of repairs.

On 10 December, ''Topeka'' completed repairs and departed Norfolk to join the fleet in the West Indies. She reached [[Culebra, Puerto Rico]], on the 16th and, for the following two months, conducted exercises in the West Indies and the Caribbean. On 21 February 1903, the ship got underway from [[Kingston, Jamaica]], to return to the United States. She arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, on 1 March, and began operations along the length of the eastern seaboard. Those operations occupied her until late in the year.

On 10 December, she steamed out of Hampton Roads to return south to the Caribbean Sea—Gulf of Mexico area. After a visit to [[New Orleans]], Louisiana, between 16 and 22 December, she began duty with the Caribbean Squadron. In January and early February 1904, she cruised along the coast of Panama in the wake of the revolution which [[Separation of Panama from Colombia|separated that republic from Colombia]] and paved the way for the construction of the Panama Canal. During the latter part of February, ''Topeka'' visited Kingston, Jamaica; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, before joining other units of the fleet off the coast of [[Dominican Republic]] late in the month. She plied the waters around [[Hispaniola]] through the end of March protecting American lives and interests while civil strife tore the island asunder.

''Topeka'' left the West Indies on 30 March and returned to the United States upon her arrival at Charleston on the 5th. On 15 May, the warship reported for duty at Newport, Rhode Island, and, for the next four months, participated in [[wireless telegraphy]] experiments conducted off the New England coast. During October and November, ''Topeka'' participated in the trials of three new warships — {{USS|Colorado|ACR-7|2}} (Armored Cruiser No. 7), {{USS|West Virginia|ACR-5|2}} (Armored Cruiser No. 5), and {{USS|Pennsylvania|ACR-4|2}} (Armored Cruiser No. 4). Late in November, she resumed duty along the east coast.

On 5 January 1905, ''Topeka'' stood out of [[Newport News, Virginia]], to return to the West Indies. She stopped at Key West for 11 days, from 11 to 22 January and then continued on to Cuba. Between 23 and 25 January, the warship gathered hydrographic and commercial information at Havana. She coaled at [[Bahia de Nipe]] on the 27th and headed for Puerto Rico, where she trained with the [[North Atlantic Fleet]] until 17 February. She operated out of [[Guantanamo Bay Naval Base|Guantanamo Bay]] from 19 February to 22 March and then headed back to the United States. After visits in Florida at Key West and [[Pensacola]], ''Topeka'' arrived in Hampton Roads on 11 April. On the 23rd, the gunboat again headed south to the troubled waters of the West Indies. She arrived off the [[Dominican Republic]] on the 28th and patrolled the coastline of that strife-torn country into August. On 13 August, the gunboat weighed anchor at Guantanamo Bay and shaped a course for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she arrived on the 21st. ''Topeka'' was placed out of commission on 7 September 1905 and assigned duty as station ship at Portsmouth.

===World War I, 1916&ndash;1918===
She remained at Portsmouth — serving as station ship, auxiliary to {{USS|Southery|IX-26|2}} and as a prison ship — until the summer of 1916. On 14 June 1916, she was recommissioned and moved to New York where she served as [[receiving ship]] until decommissioned again on 14 September. Two weeks later, she departed New York, under tow by the [[Tugboat|tug]] {{USS|Uncas|1893|2}}, and returned to Portsmouth. There, she served as a training ship for [[1st Naval District]] recruits throughout the United States' participation in World War I.

===Post-World War I, 1919&ndash;1929===
On 24 March 1919, ''Topeka'' was recommissioned at Boston. After fitting out, she cleared Boston on 28 May and headed south. She arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, on 9 June and reported for duty with the American Patrol Detachment. From then until late October, she cruised the Gulf of Mexico along the coast of Mexico. The gunboat returned to Charleston on 23 October. ''Topeka'' was placed out of commission on 21 November 1919 and was turned over to the Commandant of the [[Charleston Navy Yard]]. On 17 July 1920, the Navy adopted the alpha-numeric system of hull designations, and the gunboat became '''PG-35'''. Almost a year later, on 1 July 1921, she was redesignated '''IX-35'''. On 1 July 1922, ''Topeka'' was put up for sale. However, no satisfactory bids were forthcoming; and the vessel was withdrawn from the market on 29 September.

''Topeka'' was recommissioned again on 2 July 1923 and was turned over to the [[4th Naval District]] as a training ship for Philadelphia units of the Naval Reserve Forces.

===Final decommissioning and sale===
''Topeka'' was decommissioned for the last time on 2 December 1929. On 2 January 1930, her name was struck from the [[Naval Vessel Register|Navy List]]. In accordance with the terms of the [[London Naval Treaty|London Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armaments]], on 13 May 1930 she was sold for scrapping to the Union Shipbuilding Co., of [[Baltimore, Maryland]].  The bell currently sits on the parade deck of the [[Marine Corps Security Force Regiment|Marine Corps Security Force Company Guantanamo Bay, Cuba]] and one of her 4-inch guns is mounted in Dahlgren Park in the Washington Navy Yard.

==References==
* {{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/t/topeka-i.html}}

==External links==
* {{navsource|12/09035|USS Topeka}}
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-t/pg35.htm Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images: USS ''Topeka'']

{{Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Topeka (PG-35)}}
[[Category:Ships built in Kiel]]
[[Category:1881 ships]]
[[Category:Gunboats of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Spanish–American War gunboats of the United States]]