May 13th 1897 as USS Wilmington Gunboat no. 08. Stayed in service from 1897 until 30 June 1904. She was named after the City of Wilmington Delaware.
She was modernized a bit but cant find what was changed internally. Do notice a few more machine guns along the sides.
She was recommissioned 2 April 1906 and reclassified as USS Wilmington PG-8 for Patrol Gunboat on 17 July 1920.
She was again reclassified as unclassified miscellaneous auxiliary vessel and renamed USS Dover IX-30 on 27 January 1941. Named after the City of Dover Delaware. Her former name was freed up to commission a new Cruiser.
She was used for training sailors. We had same types of boats here in Chicago on the Great Lakes. They had hodgepodge of different weapons to train crews in different weapons, usually before getting sent to other types of ships.
In this case USS Dover was used to train USNAG crews out of the US Armed Guard School Gulfport Mississippi, as well as train with US Navy Receiving Station New Orleans LA. Last duty station was the United States Navy Armed Guard Center in Treasure Island.
In her service she was armed with multiple weapons. Commissioned she had eight 4 gun mounts and 4 3 guns.
In WWII she had one 5/38 mounted aft and two 4/ on the bow. She also mounted .50 caliber machine guns, 20mm guns.
Briefly she had depth charges that were used by the US Navy when she was a floating laboratory until the school was closed in 1944.
USS Dover served until she was retired on 8 January 1946. Sadly because nobody wanted museum ships she was sold for scrap on 30 December 1946.
She served for 49 years as a US Navy ship through Spanish American War, WWI, WWII. In this time she sailed the Great Lakes, the Atlantic, the Yangtze, and the Pacific. She went from South America, Caribbean, Philippines, and up to Canada.
Not a bad little ship I might say.
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