Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION GUNBOATS The first steel gunboats 1890s gunboats Early 20th-century gunboats Spanish-American War prizes River gunboats (PR) Steel monitors (BM) World War II gunboats 1936-42 Armed yachts 1898-1945 (PY) Special flagships 1905-77 SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 1898 Manila Bay Cuba and Puerto Rico BANANA WARS 1899-1916 34 THE ASIATIC STATION 1899-1937 36 ASIA AND THE PACIFIC 1937-42 39 The Panay Incident, December 12, 1937 Escape from China, late 1941 Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 Twilight of the Asiatic Fleet 1941-42 CONCLUSION SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

Promotional Information

A study of the history of the US Navy's gunboats and their role in building a worldwide American naval presence abroad and in combat, from the Yangtze era through to World War II.

About the Author

Born in 1981, Brian Lane Herder graduated with a BA in History from the University of Kansas in 2003, and a Masters of Library Science from Emporia State University in 2009. He is a legislative librarian for the Kansas state government and his historical research interests include the US military, naval warfare, and World War II.