USS Nero (AC-17)

USS Nero prior to World War I
History
United States
Name:	USS Nero
Namesake:	Nero
Launched:	1895
Acquired:	30 June 1898
Commissioned:	8 June 1898
Decommissioned:	12 September 1921
Fate:	sold 29 July 1922 to A. Bercovich and Company, Oakland, California
General characteristics
Type:	Collier
Displacement:	6,360 long tons (6,460 t)
Length:	320 ft (98 m)
Beam:	41 ft (12 m)
Draft:	20 ft (6.1 m)
Speed:	9 kn (17 km/h)
Complement:	80
Armament:	4-6 × pounders

USS Nero (AC–17), a steel steam collier, was built in 1895 as steamer Whitgift by J.L. Thompson and Sons, Sunderland, England; purchased on 30 June 1898 from McCondray and Co. at San Francisco; and commissioned on 8 June 1898, Commander Charles Belknap in command.

Acquired by the United States Navy for service as a collier and supply ship, Nero was part of the first mobile Fleet Train, organized to meet logistic demands created by far-flung U.S. Naval Operations in the Spanish–American War. Following conversion at Mare Island Navy Yard, the ship departed San Francisco on 23 June 1898 for the Philippines, in company with the monitor Monadnock. Sailing by way of Honolulu and Guam, the collier arrived Manila on 14 August and remained there supporting U.S. forces occupying the Philippines until departing on 4 October on a coaling voyage, steaming to Taku, China and Nagasaki, Japan, before returning to Cavite on 20 November.

Nero sailed for home on 1 December and arrived Mare Island on 7 January 1899, where she was placed out of commission.

Nero recommissioned on 10 April and sailed five days later for the Hawaiian Islands for deep sea soundings, then steamed via Guam to the Philippines arriving Cavite on 4 August. There she coaled various naval vessels until sailing on 9 September for Yokohama to continue deep sea sounding. The collier got under way for the west coast on 24 September, stopping at Guam and Honolulu and arriving Mare Island on 15 February 1900. During this voyage she took a sounding in the area of the Challenger Deep, recording a depth of 5269 fathoms (9,636 m, 31,614 ft), the greatest depth recorded at that time. She decommissioned on 20 May.