Ah, how soon they forget the Sand Pebbles

So, with the commissioning of the USS Canberra (LCS-30) in Australia, a couple of news articles subsequently flashed claiming she was the “first U.S. warship commissioned outside of the country.”

About that.

The Yangtze River Patrol of the Asiatic Fleet, especially after 1898, included a series of more than a dozen river gunboats that spent their entire career– with the exception of regular runs to Hong Kong or Cavite for maintenance periods– in Chinese waters. Commissioned U.S. Navy warships, they never saw their “home” country.

This included six captured Spanish gunboats: Elcano, Villalobos, General Alava, Pompey, Callao, and Quiros, that were commissioned in 1900-1903 at Cavite under their old names (and often with old crew members recruited from the locals!)

USS ELCANO (PG-38) at Cavite Navy Yard, Philippine Island circa 1900, before being refitted for the U.S. Navy. Note she has been white-washed and her awning shown above…