USS General Alava (AG-5)

History
United States
Name:	USS General Alava
Laid down:	date unknown
Launched:	1895
Acquired:	21 February 1900
Commissioned:	date unknown
Decommissioned:	28 June 1929
Struck:	date unknown
Fate:	sunk, 17 July 1929
General characteristics
Type:	Cargo ship
Displacement:	1,390 long tons (1,410 t)
Length:	212 ft 6 in (64.77 m)
Beam:	28 ft 3 in (8.61 m)
Draft:	13 ft (4.0 m)
Speed:	10.5 kn (12.1 mph; 19.4 km/h)
Complement:	76
Armament:	1 × 6-pounder, 2 × 3-pounders

USS General Alava (AG-5) was a General Alava-class cargo ship acquired by the United States Navy during the Spanish–American War and subsequently used by the Navy as a general cargo ship.

General Alava was built in 1895 by A. McMillan & Sons, Dumbarton, Scotland; captured during the Spanish–American War; transferred from the War Department to the Navy on 21 February 1900; commissioned at Cavite, Philippines on 9 March 1900, Lieutenant Commander C. E. Fox in command.

General Alava served in the Philippines as a transport and lighthouse tender. She transported Marines between various garrisons in the Philippines, making a voyage to Guam in November 1900 to return survivors of Yosemite—lost at sea during a typhoon—to Cavite. Following a tour of the Archipelago with the Army Board for selection of a leper colony site, she carried a Naval Observatory party to Pendang, Sumatra, to observe a partial eclipse of the sun on 16 May 1901. From 3–26 September 1901, she cruised with Rear Admiral C. C. Remey on inspection of the southern islands. She carried Governor William Howard Taft from Manila to Singapore and back from 5–22 August 1902. The transport again sailed from Manila on 29 October, transporting a Forestry Commission to the southern islands, Northern Luzon, Formosa and Nagasaki, Japan. She returned to Subic Bay on 30 December and decommissioned at Cavite on 24 January 1903.

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