City Ice Boat No. 3, commonly known as Ice Boat No. 3 or just No. 3, was a municipal sidewheel icebreaker built in 1873 to assist in keeping Philadelphia's waterways free of ice during the winter months. The vessel was also used for occasional excursions and other duties through the rest of the year.
During the Spanish–American War, Ice Boat No. 3 was briefly commissioned into the U.S. Navy as the coastal patrol vessel USS Arctic, before returning to her normal duties under her original name. Ice Boat No. 3 was sunk in a collision with an underwater obstruction in February 1905.
Construction and design
In the early 1870s, the City of Philadelphia decided that its two existing icebreakers were not sufficient to keep Philadelphia's waterways free of ice, and that a third would be required. Accordingly, the council ordered a new vessel from the recently established iron shipbuilding firm of Wood, Dialogue & Co. of Camden, New Jersey. The new boat, an iron-hulled sidewheel icebreaker named City Ice Boat No. 3, cost $245,000 and was launched at Kaighn's Point, New Jersey, on 5 November 1873.Childs, p. 25.
City Ice Boat No.3 had a length of 201 feet 6 inches, a beam of 33 feet 5 inches and a draft of 13 feet 6 inches. She had a gross register tonnage of 637.2 tons (326.42 tons net)United States Govt. 1885, p. 314. and a displacement of 1,537 tons. Photos taken during the vessel's naval service indicate that she was a double-ender, with a smaller pilothouse astern. Her powerplant—a steam engine of the horizontal direct-acting typeSilverstone, p. 76.—was rated at a nominal horsepower of 500. It is not known what icebreaking features were incorporated into her design, but she is known to have been capable of making unusually sharp turns. She was the largest of the city's three icebreakers, the only one with an electric generating plant and electric lighting, and throughout her career was considered the best of the three.
Service history
Apart from special occasions, the city's ice boats were usually only employed for two or three months of the year—through the winter months of December/January through February/March—being laid up for repair or refit the rest of the year. Though their primary role was to keep Philadelphia's channel to the sea free of ice, towing vessels endangered or hampered by ice was an important secondary task, which had the additional benefit of earning the city towage fees.
Municipal service, 1874–1898
Ice Boat No. 3s trial trip was scheduled for 31 January 1874, with Philadelphia's city council members invited to attend. Almost immediately thereafter, the ice boat entered service in the vicinity of New Castle, Delaware, towing two vessels, a bark bound for Hamburg and a brig for Matanzas, on 3 February. The following winter, No. 3 was again in service off New Castle, towing a bark bound for Bremen and another for Yokohama in early March.
On 4 February 1881, Ice Boat No. 3, operating under the command of Captain Henry F. Virden near the Delaware Breakwater, went to the assistance of two pilot boats, Bavard and Knight, towing them into harbor, and later aided an imperilled lightship. That same day, the ice boat conducted a search for the abandoned bark Arundel, which was eventually located five miles offshore "in a dangerous position ... fast in the ice" and "with great difficulty" towed the vessel to the Breakwater harbor, arriving 11 pm. Later, the ice boat took aboard the crew of Arundel and resumed tow of the vessel, returning it to the port of Philadelphia on 8 February. Because the Arundel had been abandoned by its crew, the crew of Ice Boat No. 3 sued for salvage, the sum of $2,500 eventually being granted to them by the U.S. District Court.Members of the Bar. p. 146.
On 10 January 1891, Ice Boat No. 3 was scheduled to tow the school ship Saratoga to sea from the port of Philadelphia, when a change of personnel aboard the ship necessitated a postponement. The following year, on December 28, the tug Crawford was caught in an ice floe at New Castle and "carried almost to Fort Delaware" where she was holed by a collision with the schooner Aaron Reppard, but was towed to shoal water to prevent sinking by Ice Boat No. 3.
On January 20, 1893, Ice Boat No. 3 arrived at the Delaware Breakwater with the Reading Railroad steamer Panther in tow, which had experienced continual westerly winds and snowstorms since departing Newburyport, Massachusetts ten days earlier. Some weeks later, on the night of 7 February, Ice Boat No. 3 was towing the ship Standard past the Delaware Breakwater when the towing hawser broke, propelling the Standard into the Italian bark Giovanni anchored at the Breakwater and damaging the latter vessel to the amount of $4,000. The captain of Giovanni sued the City of Philadelphia for damages and won the ensuing court case, with the master of the ice boat found to have exercised "gross carelessness" for failing to see the Giovanni in time, and for his "sudden veering" manoeuvre which caused the hawser to catch on Standards bobstays and snap.Editorial Staff of the National Reporter System. p. 553.
In July 1896, the navy organized training exercises for the Pennsylvania Naval Militia to be held aboard , which was anchored off the Delaware Breakwater for the purpose. Two of Philadelphia's ice boats, No. 2 and No. 3, were recommissioned to transport the militia from Philadelphia to the Indiana, with No. 2, commanded by Lt. Stout, embarking the Pittsburgh division consisting of 66 officers and men, and No. 3, under the command of Lt.-Commander Breed, embarking the 26 officers and 88 men of the Philadelphia division. The two ice boats departed Philadelphia on the 10th, arriving at the Breakwater on the 11th where they anchored. The militiamen apparently remained aboard the ice boats until the 14th when they were taken aboard Indiana for several days of training, including gunnery, target, signals and boating practice, before being returned to the ice boats for the return journey to Philadelphia.United States Navy 1896, p. 130.
The winter of 1897-98 was a mild one, with only two ice boats, No. 1 and No. 2, needed to keep the ice in check from 2 to 19 January, when they were stood down. The two returned to service on the 28th, and on 3 February, they were joined by Ice Boat No. 3. On 5 February, No. 2 and No. 3 were despatched to the assistance of the steamer Pennland, which had grounded near Tinicum Island. Pennland was refloated by No. 1 and No. 2 on 7 February. By mid-February, all three ice boats had been decommissioned, the last being Ice Boat No. 3, which was decommissioned on 15 February after only thirteen days of service for the season; two of No. 3s boilers were however kept under steam until 15 March. Due to rumours of impending war with Spain, all three boats were given a thorough overhaul after decommission.Warwick and Thompson, 1899, pp. 65-67.
Spanish–American War
In March 1898, in anticipation of war with Spain, the U.S. Navy began preparations for the establishment of a Naval Auxiliary Force, known colloquially as the "mosquito fleet", for the defence of the United States East Coast. In the Delaware region, the Navy requested and received plans for the three Philadelphia ice boats, with a view to determining their suitability as patrol craft. The two older ice boats were deemed unsuitable, but Ice Boat No. 3 was accepted for service.Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pp. 330-331. On 23 April, Spain declared war on the United States in response to the latter's blockade of Cuba. On 5 May, Ice Boat No. 3, "in first-class working order", was transferred to the Navy,Warwick and Thompson, p. 68. and on 9 May, in a display of patriotic fervour, Philadelphia's city councillors voted to lease the ice boat to the Navy indefinitely for the nominal sum of one dollar.Warwick and Thompson, pp. 6-7.
On 16 May, Ice Boat No. 3 was towed to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard at League Island for conversion to naval service.Warwick and Thompson, p.7. A couple of days later, naval officers at the yard reportedly described the vessel as slow, unwieldy, vulnerable to shellfire, and of little apparent use militarily. Regardless, the conversion proceeded, albeit at a less than urgent pace; she was still undergoing "repairs" at the yard as late as 18 June. The conversion work included the mounting of a 60-pounder breech loading gun—converted from a Civil War Parrott rifle—and two 47 mm guns. During the time the boat was undergoing conversion, rumours circulated that she would be sent to Cuba for use as a gunboat or blockade ship, but the Navy eventually confirmed her role as a Naval Auxiliary Force coastal patrol vessel with the Fourth Lighthouse District.Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, p. 332.
The converted ice boat was formally commissioned on 9 July 1898 as USS Arctic, the new name having been personally chosen by Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long;Warwick and Thompson, p. 69. she was the second U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name. The newly commissioned vessel was manned by six officers and 58 men from the Pennsylvania Naval Reserve, Philadelphia division,Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, p. 333. Lt. George C. Stout in command. Three additional crew members, from the Philadelphia City Ice Boat Department, were given temporary naval commissions as Assistant Engineer, First-class Machinist and Second-class Machinist respectively.Warwick and Thompson, pp. 68-69.
USS Arctic appears to have made only one voyage for the Navy, to the Delaware Breakwater and back, via New Castle and Lewes, between 28 July and 16 August, but whether this constituted a formal patrol or some other mission is unclear. On 5 August she dragged anchor and stranded just inside Cape Henlopen during a gale. She was pulled off the beach by a tug without damage. Arctic was decommissioned on 23 August 1898, reconverted to her "original condition", and on 13 September, returned to the City Ice Boat Department, where she resumed her former title of Ice Boat No. 3. The three members of the Department given temporary naval commissions also received their discharges between 1 and 16 September and were reinstated in their previous positions.
Following the cessation of hostilities between Spain and the United States in August, a "Peace Jubilee" including a naval review was held at the port of Philadelphia on 25 October. All three ice boats participated, with No. 1 and No. 2 placed at the disposal of the review committee and their guests, and Ice Boat No. 3 assigned to representatives of the press and their families.
Return to municipal service, 1899
Icebreaking The winter of 1899 on the Delaware began mildly,Ashbridge and Haddock 1900, pp. 497–498. but a cold snap and heavy snow falls from 7 February led to the rapid formation of thick ice. Ice Boats No. 1 and No. 2 were recommissioned on 8 February and Ice Boat No. 3 returned to service on the 10th. On Sunday 11 February, Ice Boat No. 3 was engaged in icebreaking all day during a snow storm. The following Tuesday, Ice Boat No. 3 set out from Philadelphia and Ice Boat No. 1 from New Castle, the ice having attained a thickness of "10 inches ... [with] 19 inches of snow on top".Ashbridge and Haddock 1900, p. 499. The two vessels met the next day off Fort Mifflin, having thus reopened the port. Ice Boat No. 3 then continued on to the Breakwater, there supplying the steamship Belgenland with 40 tons of coal, and towing to the Breakwater the oyster schooner Annie Cooney—abandoned off the Brandywine Light—before escorting several steamers to Philadelphia, arriving late on the 17th. On Sunday the 19th, the three ice boats collectively assisted sixteen steamers to arrive or depart the city's port.Ashbridge and Haddock 1900, pp. 499–500.