The USS Mayflower a Fall River, MA, 1917

USS Mayflower

The Mayflower was the second ship in the Navy to have the name.  She was built as a luxurious steam yacht in 1896 by J. and G. Thompsoon, Clydebank, Schotland and was purchased by the Navy in 1898 for the War with Spain.  She joined Admiral Sampson's squadroon and sailed to Havana to support the blockade.  Enroute, Mayflower captured the Spanish schooner Santiago Apostol.  On the 14th of May Mayflower engaged two Spanish warships with inn six 6-pounder guns and drove them back to the shield of the Morro Castle guns.  In 1902 she served as Admiral Dewey's flagship.  In 1904 she carried Secretary of War Taft to the West Indies.

The USS Yankton after 1908 with battleship

The Yankton (originally named Penelope) was a steel-hulled schooner built in 1893 at Leith, Scotland and aquired by the Navy in May 1898.  She was converted to a gunboat carrying six 3 pounders and two Colt machine guns and sent to patrol Cuban water during the Spanish-American War.  She accompanied the Great White Fleet around the world as a fleet tender and in World War I she was stationed in Gibraltar as part of the Patrol Forces protecting Allied shipping from German U-boats.  She was sold in 1921 and broken up for scrap in the summer of 1930 in Boston.

The USS Panter postcard mailed from Hampton Roads upon returning from the Cruise Around the World

The Panther was built by William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia, Pa. in 1889 and purchased by the Navy from Red D Line Steamship Company on 12 April 1898.  Se was commissioned at New York on 22 April 1898 with Commander George C. Reiter in Command.
Panther was pressed into service immediately after commissioning to support the war efforts.  She joined the North Atlantic Fleet, portions of which blockaded Cuba throughout the conflict.  Admiral William Sampson received word from Key West early in May that Spanish Admiral Topete's squadron was very likely at Santiago, Cuba, so Panther and other ships of the fleet began parolling off that port until she steamed to Guantanamo on 11 June with 646 Marines, who landed at Caimanera and entrenhed themselves in preparation for the ensuing battle.  After the destruction of the Spanish fleet Panther steamed to New York until 20 October 1899 when she went to Philadelphia.  She provided various support services until decommisioning in 1903.
Panther recommissioned in 1907 to serve as auxiliary repair ship for the North Atlantic Fleet until April 1917.  She served as one of the auxiliary ships for the Great White Fleet's cruise around the world.  She later served as a tender to the destroyer force throughout World War I.

The USS Mayflower a Fall River, MA, 1917

The Glacier was built as a merchant ship   by J. L. Thompson & Sons, Sunderland, England and aquired by the Navy in July 1898 to support the Spanish-American war effort.  She departed Hampton Roads on 15 August for 5 moonths supplying ice, meat, and stores to ships of the North Atlantic Fleet operating in the West Indies.  In 1899 sher was assigned to the Asiatic Station and operated in Philippine waters to supply U.S. Army and navy forces is ice, meat, and stores.  She became a unit of the Atlantic fleet in January 1907 and joined the Great White Fleet in San Francisco in April 1908 to make it voyage around the world.