USS Dixie (1893)
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| Name: | USS Dixie |
| Builder: | Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia |
| Laid down: | 1893, as El Rio |
| Acquired: | by purchase, 15 April 1898 |
| Commissioned: | 19 April 1898 |
| Decommissioned: | 7 March 1899 |
| Recommissioned: | 15 November 1899 |
| Decommissioned: | 21 July 1902 |
| Recommissioned: | 1 October 1903 |
| Decommissioned: | 23 October 1905 |
| Recommissioned: | 2 June 1906 |
| Decommissioned: | 1 November 1907 |
| Recommissioned: | 2 February 1909 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 June 1922 |
| Reclassified: | AD-1, 17 July 1920 |
| Motto: | Fight With Our Lives So People Can Live |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping, 25 September 1922 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Auxiliary cruiser / Destroyer tender |
| Displacement: | 6,114 long tons (6,212 t) |
| Length: | 405 ft 9 in (123.67 m) |
| Beam: | 48 ft 3 in (14.71 m) |
| Draft: | 20 ft (6.1 m) |
| Speed: | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
| Complement: | 224 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 10 × 3 in (76 mm) guns |
The first USS Dixie (later AD-1) was a United States Navy auxiliary cruiser and later a destroyer tender. The Dixie was the first ship of the United States Navy to have this name.
She was built as the steam brig El Rio in 1893 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia for the Southern Pacific Railroad's Morgan Line.El Rio was purchased by the Navy 15 April 1898, converted to an auxiliary cruiser by her builder, and commissioned 19 April 1898, Commander Charles Henry Davis, Jr. in command.
Dixie stood out of Hampton Roads, 11 June 1898, and arrived at Santiago de Cuba on 19 June. Attached to Eastern Squadron, North Atlantic Fleet, she cruised in the West Indies during the Spanish–American War on blockade duty and convoying Army transports. During 27 and 28 July, she participated in the capture of Ponce, Puerto Rico, landing an armed force which received the surrender of the towns of Ponce and La Playa. She sailed from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, 24 August and arrived at Philadelphia 22 September, where she was placed out of commission 7 March 1899. Between 15 March and 15 July she was on loan to the War Department for use as a transport.
Recommissioned 15 November 1899, Dixie began service as a training ship for recruits. From 17 December 1899 to 8 August 1900, she sailed to the West Indies, the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal to the Philippines, where she transferred men to the base at Cavite, returning to the United States by the same route. Another training cruise was made from 29 September 1900 to 28 February 1901, during which she visited the Azores, Madeira, Gibraltar, and Mediterranean ports returning by way of the West Indies and La Guaira, Venezuela, to Norfolk. She transferred men and stores to the South Atlantic Station between 7 May and 3 July 1901, then made another training cruise to northern European waters and the Mediterranean between 24 July 1901 and 7 May 1902. From 14 May to 6 June 1902 she was on special duty, transporting provisions and supplies for the relief of victims of the volcanic eruptions of Soufrière, Martinique and Mount Pelée, St. Vincent in the West Indies. She went out of commission at New York Navy Yard on 21 July 1902.
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