USS Hector (AC, 1898)

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USS Hector circa August 1898
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Class:        HECTOR
Design:        Cargo, 1883
Displacement (tons):        2,792 gross
Dimensions (feet):        330.2' pp x 38.3' x 22.0' mn
Original Armament:        2-6pdr (1898)
Later armaments:        --
Complement:        81
Speed (kts.):        10
Propulsion (HP):        --
Machinery:        --

Construction:

AC	Name	Acq.	Builder	Keel	Launch	Commiss.
--	HECTOR	22 Jun 98	Wigham Richardson	--	6 Jun 83	22 Jun 98

Disposition:

AC	Name	Decomm.	Strike	Disposal	Fate	MA Sale
--	HECTOR	17 Sep 98	22 Aug 99	10 Oct 99	Sold	--

Class Notes:
In June 1883 the Low Walker shipyard of Wigham Richardson & Co., at Newcastle, England built the cargo ship LILBURN TOWER for the Liverpool shipping firm of Stumore, Weston & Co. The ship sailed under the British flag till 1890 and then was transferred to a Spanish corporation (La Flecha) and hoisted the Spanish flag under the name PEDRO. She arrived at Havana on 17 Apr 98 with a cargo from Antwerp. She remained there five days, discharged her cargo and left for Santiago on 22 Apr 98. At 6:00 pm, when about 15 miles east of the Morro, and 5 miles north of the Cuban coast, she was captured by the armored cruiser NEW YORK, of the blockading fleet, sent to Key West, and there libeled and condemned on April 23, 1898.

The Navy service of HECTOR, ex PEDRO, was brief. Commissioned on 22 Jun 98, she made a patrol between 10 and 20 July out of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico to Tampa, probably along the west coast of Florida, and then back to Key West. On 24 July she departed for Boston where she arrived a week later and was decommissioned on 17 Sep 98. Struck from the Navy list on 22 Aug 99, HECTOR was advertised for sale on 7 Sep 99 and sold on 10 Oct 99 to the only bidder, the Metropolitan Coal Co. of Boston, Mass., for $65,150. Sold again in 1910, she fell victim to a German submarine in late 1917. Her cargo coal capacity in 1898 was 2,600 tons.

Ship Notes:

AC	Name	Notes
--	HECTOR	War prize, ex PEDRO (Spanish), ex LILBURN TOWER (British, completed Jul 83) 1890. Merc. HECTOR 1899, D. N. LUCKENBACH 1910, torpedoed in the Bay of Biscay 27 Oct 17.