USS Winslow (TB-5)

USS Winslow (TB-5), photographed circa 1898, with a small "water taxi" rowing past her bow.
History
United States
Name:	Winslow
Namesake:	Rear admiral John Ancrum Winslow
Ordered:	26 July 1894 (authorised)
Builder:	Columbian Iron Works and Dry Dock Co., Baltimore, MD
Laid down:	8 May 1896
Launched:	8 May 1897
Sponsored by:	Miss E. H. Hazel
Commissioned:	29 December 1897
Decommissioned:	12 July 1910
Struck:	12 July 1910
Identification:	TB-5
Fate:	sold, January 1920
General characteristics
Class and type:	Foote-class torpedo boat
Displacement:	142 long tons (144 t)
Length:	161 ft 6.75 in (49.2443 m)
Beam:	16 ft (4.9 m)
Draft:	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) (mean)
Installed power:	2 × Mosher boilers 2,000 ihp (1,491 kW)
Propulsion:	vertical triple expansion engines 2 × screw propellers
Speed:	25 kn (29 mph; 46 km/h) 24.82 kn (28.56 mph; 45.97 km/h) (Speed on Trial)
Complement:	20 officers and enlisted
Armament:	3 × 1-pounder (37 mm (1.46 in)) guns 3 × 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes (3x1)

USS Winslow (Torpedo Boat No. 5/TB-5) was a United States Navy torpedo boat noted for its involvement at the First and Second Battle of Cardenas during the Spanish–American War. She was named for Rear Admiral John Ancrum Winslow.

The first Winslow (Torpedo Boat No. 5) was laid down on 8 May 1896 at Baltimore, Md., by the Columbian Iron Works; launched on 8 May 1897; sponsored by Miss E. H. Hazel; and commissioned on 29 December 1897 at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Lt. John B. Bernadou in command.

On 6 January 1897, Winslow departed Norfolk and proceeded via New York City to Newport, R.I., where she loaded torpedoes and drilled her crew in torpedo firing before returning to Hampton Roads on the 30th.

During Winslow's seven-week sojourn at Norfolk, the battleship USS Maine (ACR-1) sank in Havana Harbor; and the United States began drifting steadily closer to war with Spain. On 11 March 1897, Winslow steamed out of Norfolk and headed south to Key West, Florida., a base much nearer the probable theater of operations in the approaching conflict. The warship operated from that port through the remainder of March and the first three weeks in April. On Monday, the 25th, President William McKinley reluctantly ratified a joint resolution of Congress which proclaimed that a state of war had existed between the United States and Spain since the previous Thursday.