SS Yorktown was launched February 10, 1894, by Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works, Chester, Pennsylvania for the Old Dominion Steamship Company for the company's overnight New York City/Norfolk, Virginia service. The United States Navy purchased Yorktown on April 21, 1898, to be commissioned as the second USS Resolute, an auxiliary cruiser and transport that saw naval service during the Spanish–American War 1898–1899. The United States Department of War acquired the ship on January 22, 1900, for service as the United States Army Transport (USAT) Rawlins. The ship was sold to the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company of Baltimore, Maryland on July 27, 1901, and renamed Powhatan. Powhatan was wrecked in 1916 and in 1919 rebuilt as the world's first turbo-electric propelled passenger ship Cuba for luxury passenger and express freight service between Florida and Cuba with the Miami Steamship Company beginning service in 1920. Renamed Seneca, the ship burned and sank December 30, 1927, at Hoboken, New Jersey then refloated September 2, 1928, and scrapped.
Over the ship's career she went aground at Santiago, Cuba, then two months later burned and sank at Brooklyn in 1901, collided and sank in 1916 in Chesapeake Bay and finally burned and sank in Hoboken, in 1927.
Construction
Yorktown, an iron-hulled passenger ship, was launched on February 10, 1894, by Delaware River Shipbuilding and Engine Works at Chester, Pennsylvania for the Old Dominion Steamship Company. Yorktown was the last ship on order, and when completed the company warned it would be forced to close for the first time in its history unless new orders were placed, putting the 100 men, down from 1,500 a few years before, out of work with depressive impact on the town of Chester.
Old Dominion Steamship Company service, 1894–1898
The company served ports in the Chesapeake Bay with weekday, overnight freight and passenger service between New York, pier 26, North River, and Norfolk (Old Point Comfort) with routes extending to Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Service by Yorktown and sister ship Jamestown was planned to begin April 10, 1894. On March 19, 1898, Yorktown was advertised by the company as the most comfortable way to travel from New York, sailing at 3 p.m. on March 22 and arriving the next morning for a $13 fare that included berth and meals, to see the "Launching of the Great Twin Battleships and " on March 24, 1898, at Newport News.
United States government service, 1898–1902
The U.S. Navy purchased Yorktown from the Old Dominion Steamship Company on April 21, 1898, for Spanish–American War service commissioning the ship as USS Resolute on May 11, 1898.
United States Navy service, 1898–1899
Resolute departed New York City on May 25, 1898, assigned to cruise between Môle-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti, and Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, in search of the Spanish Navy squadron commanded by Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete. After calling at Key West, Florida, on June 8, Resolute returned to the southeast Cuban coast to assist the U.S. fleet in scouting, relying on her high speed for protection. She was present on July 3 at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, steaming eastward to warn United States Army transports of the Spanish squadrons emergence from the harbor of Santiago de Cuba. Subsequently, Resolute transported Spanish prisoners-of-war to the United States, departing the Cuban coast on July 8 for Charleston, South Carolina; Newport News, Virginia; Tompkinsville, New York; and New York City.
Resolute returned to the Cuban war zone late in July engaging Spanish shore batteries at Manzanillo, Cuba, on August 13, but sailed for the United States carrying returning Marines from the First Battalion who had made the first assault landing at Guantánamo Bay. The ship reached New York on August 23 and after inspection continued to Portsmouth Harbor the next day, where the First Marine Battalion was disembarked.
In October, Resolute embarked the Evacuation Commission at Nuevitas, Cuba, for transportation to Havana, Cuba, and Key West, and again to Havana. Then she returned American troops home to the U.S.
Resolute was out of service until December, while being fumigated following an outbreak of yellow fever on board. She then steamed between Havana and Key West on transport missions through March 1899. Her final service was as a marker vessel for the steam trials of the new battleship at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from May–September 1899. The ship arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 2 for decommissioning effective on December 15, 1899, at League Island Navy Yard.