USS Paragua was a schooner-rigged iron gunboat in the United States Navy during the Philippine–American War. Paragua was one of four Arayat class gunboats built by the Manila Ship Co. for the Spanish navy in 1887–88. Her sister ships were the , and .
Arayat, Samar, Pampanga and Paragua all were 243 tons. Samar was the first completed in 1887 and was 116 ft, while the other three, built at the same time in 1887–88, were 121 ft long. They were a scaled down design based on the larger El Cano at 620 tons and 166 ft that had been built in Spain. The primary design criterion was a shallower draft, seven feet or less, and length, in order to better adapt to the shallow reefs and rivers of the Philippines. For their small size, the boats were quite fast, maneuverable, and heavily armed.
Paragua was laid down for the Spanish Navy by the Manila Ship Company, Cavite, Philippine Islands, in March 1887 and launched in January 1888. She was named for the island of Palawan, known as Paragua prior to 1905. When the Spanish–American War broke out in April 1898, Paragua was part of the Spanish Pacific Fleet based at Manila, Philippines Paragua was one of ten gunboats put up for sale in early 1899 by the Spanish navy at its former base on the southern island of Basilan following the signing of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish–American War. The gunboats were purchased by a syndicate of private individuals put together by General Elwell Otis, the U.S. Army commander, in order to prevent their being acquired by the Philippine Revolutionary government. The Army bought the ships from the syndicate and then sold them to the U.S. Navy in early May 1899. Paragua was commissioned on 29 May 1899, Ensign W.C. Davidson, commanding.
Service history
Paragua was in continuous service from 1899 to 1911, other than from August 1902 until early 1904, when she and several other gunboats were placed out of commission during a reduction of the Asiatic Station. Most of Paraguas service, other than the first two years she was in commission, was spent patrolling in southern Philippine waters. On 13 September 1899, Paragua, engaged insurgents at Baleno, Masbate, south of Luzon and north of Visayas that were directing rifle-fire at the ship from a range of 400–900 yards. The attack was silenced in 20 minutes and Paragua captured and destroyed a Filipino schooner. On 14 September 1899, Paragua engaged about 300 rifle-firing insurgents heavily entrenched at a distance of 700–1,000 yards at the northern Philippine town of San Fabian, Pangasinan, on Lingayen Gulf. Aside from repelling shore based attacks from insurgents, in the first few years of the 20th century, Paragua and her sister ships performed interdiction and blockade duty to intercept smugglers of cargo and humans in the shallow waters and shoals of the Western Visayas region and in particular, between Iloilo on the southeast side of Panay and Guimaras, Negros and Romblon. Paragua also provided naval gunfire support, reconnaissance and transported U.S. Army troops battling the insurgency in the southern Philippine islands.
In 1901, Paragua and her sister ship, Samar, were operating out of the U.S. Naval Station at Cebu. In July 1901, Paragua and other gunboats assisted the army in establishing 20 garrisons at Samar Island by ascending the rivers to penetrate the island which had no roads. On 12 July 1902, Secretary of the Navy William Henry Moody ordered Read Admiral Frank Wildes, commander of the Asiatic Station to place six gunboats, including Paragua out of commission as part of a force reduction.
Paragua, Ensign Charles S. Kerrick, commanding, was recommissioned in 1904 as part of the Philippine Squadron of the Asiatic Fleet. Along with her sister ships, and , Paragua's home base was at Parang on the island of Mindanao on the Moro Gulf near the city of Cotabato and Illana Bay. Paragua'''s main duties continued to be suppression of piracy, gun-running, banditry and slave-trading, as well as providing support and transportation for the U.S. Army and Philippine Constabulary in quelling the ongoing insurgency in the southern Philippine islands, known as the Moro Rebellion.