Governor R. M. McLane (steamboat)
{{short description|Patrol vessel of the United States Navy}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Steamer GOV. ROBERT M. Mc.LANE.png |Ship caption=Maryland State steamer Gov. Robert M. McLane, ca. 1918. }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag={{USN flag|1917}} |Ship name=Governor R. M. McLane |Ship namesake=Robert Milligan McLane (1815–1898), Governor of Maryland (1884–1885) |Ship owner=State of Maryland |Ship operator=*Maryland State Oyster Police Force
|Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Neafie and Levy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched= |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed=1884 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification=*Official Number:
|Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate= |Ship status=As of 2003, resting on harbor bottom, partially submerged, at Baltimore, Maryland |Ship notes=Operated as state police steamboat 1884–1917 and from 1918 |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Ship class= |Ship type=Patrol vessel |Ship tonnage={{GRT|144.54}} |Ship displacement=DANFS uses the figure 144 prefixed with "dp" for displacement but this is likely an error as the registered and displacement are not equal. |Ship tons burthen= |Ship length=
|Ship beam=*{{cvt|21|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} (1886 registry)
|Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship draft={{convert|6|ft|9|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship depth={{cvt|10.5|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=Steam engine |Ship sail plan= |Ship speed={{cvt|13|knots|mph km/h}} |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship troops= |Ship complement= |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*12-pound Dahlgren boat howitzer (Oyster Police Force)
|Ship armour= |Ship armor= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
Governor R. M. McLane, was a steamboat built in 1884 that served the state of Maryland as an enforcement and survey vessel.
Maryland's State Oyster Police Force (“Oyster Navy”) was established to enforce state conservation laws designed to protect Maryland's oyster resources when out of state, often New England, dredgers began destroying reefs. Later local opposition to licenses turned to open "warfare" in the "oyster wars" during which open battles took place. Governor R. M. McLane, after replacing an older steamer, Leila, was armed with the cannon the earlier vessel had used in engagements.
Maryland's leasing plans with natural oyster reefs open to small interests and large tracts of "barren bottom" leased to large fishing interest depended upon accurate surveys of the location of natural oyster reefs. That survey was supported by Governor R. M. McLane which was also detailed to the state Shell Fish Commission seasonally for research.
During World War I all the Maryland State Fisheries Force became part of the Naval Reserve in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1918.
After return to normal service the steamer suffered extensive damage, "burned to the waterline" according to reports, but was rebuilt using insurance money. Governor R. M. McLane continued in service as the largest vessel of the fleet.
Maryland state boat
Governor R. M. McLane was built in 1884 by Neafie and Levy at Philadelphia as the first of two identical steamers, the other being Governor P. F. Thomas, for the state of Maryland.{{cite book |year=1886 |title=Eighteenth Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States, Year ended June 30, 1886 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation |page=327 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XSUpAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA327 |access-date=11 December 2018}}{{cite DANFS |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/g/governor-r-m-mclane.html |title=Governor R. M. McLane (S. P. 1328) |date=10 February 2016 |accessdate=11 December 2018}}Eighteenth Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States, Year ended June 30, 1886, page 327, lists Governor P. F. Thomas (O/N 85869) immediately above Governor Rob't M. McLane with identical specifications , year and place of build. Both were 144.54 GRT, 72.27 NET, 113.8' length (registered), 21' breadth, 10.5' depth and 275 nominal hp. Governor P. F. Thomas was sold after the war and is listed in 1920 as tow boat Mary W. Potter (O/N 215571). General characteristics from 1886 registration are for a steel-hulled, {{GRT|144.54}} steam vessel, official number 85858, {{cvt|113.8|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} registered length, {{cvt|21|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} and depth of {{cvt|10.5|ft|m|1|abbr=on}}. World War I-era Navy figures are {{convert|120|ft|m|abbr=on}} length overall, {{convert|22|ft|m|abbr=on}} beam, {{convert|6|ft|9|in|m|abbr=on}} draft and a speed of {{cvt|13|knots|mph km/h}}.
File:Oyster wars 1886 Harpers Weekly.jpeg
The steamer was part of the Maryland's Oyster Police Force (“Oyster Navy”) established in 1868 by the General Assembly to protect the state's oyster industry from local and out of state dredgers and enforce a licensing system.{{cite web |title=An Evolving Force: Natural Resources Police Celebrates 150th Anniversary |publisher=Maryland Department of Natural Resources |date=March 30, 2018 |url=https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2018/03/30/an-evolving-force/ |access-date=11 December 2018}} Resistance came from oyster poachers, termed "oyster pirates" locally, resulting in armed conflicts between vessels that eventually included small cannon. Governor R. M. McLane replaced the first "Oyster Navy" steamer Leila in 1884. Leila had been armed with a 12-pound Dahlgren boat howitzer and engaged in at least one major fight in February 1884 and that weapon may have been transferred to the later steamer that had that type of gun.{{cite web |title=Oyster Wars Cannon in Annapolis |publisher=Maryland Department of Natural Resources |date=March 30, 2018 |url=https://dnr.maryland.gov/Pages/md-conservation-history/Oyster-Cannon-State-House.aspx |access-date=11 December 2018}}{{cite journal |date=February 15, 1884 |title=Piratical Oyster Crews |journal=The New York Times |url=http://dnr.maryland.gov/Documents/PiraticalOysterCrews_NYTimes_1884.pdf |access-date=11 December 2018}} On 10 December 1888 Governor R. M. McLane, responding to a pirate attack that involved firing on a passenger steamer on the Chester River was ambushed by a flotilla of pirate boats. The steamer responded by ramming and sinking two boats and taking twenty-four pirates prisoner. The police schooner Julia Hamilton found pirates on oyster beds in late December, ordered them off, but they returned and the police schooner attacked them resulting in several hours engagement with over 600 shots fired by police aboard Julia Hamilton. The pirates were routed, one being shot through an arm and boats riddled. State forces were reinforced by Governor R. M. McLane and five dredging schooners were captured, though their captains escaped, and towed into Cambridge, Maryland.{{cite journal |date=December 30, 1888 |title=Chesapeake Pirated Routed |journal=The New York Times |pages=3 |location=The New York |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1888/12/30/106203959.pdf |access-date=16 December 2018}}
Maryland passed an act in 1906 to establish an oyster industry and culture that recognized the need for a complete survey of the natural oyster beds in the state's Chesapeake waters. The issue of existing leases to small oystering operations on natural beds and encouragement of larger operations on much larger leases to be developed by oyster culture depended on accurate mapping of the natural beds and bottom suitable for culture and development of new beds. Governor R. M. McLane participated in the resulting survey, particularly in the more open waters that weather could make dangerous for the small boats, and in towing the survey houseboat and supporting the survey in general. The steamer was on loan to the Shell Fish Commission during critical seasons.{{cite journal |year=1907 |title=First Report of the Shell Fish Commission of Maryland |pages=8, 23, 105, 173–174, 179 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lRxJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA3 |last1=Shell Fish Commission |first1=Maryland }}
On 21 July 1916 a first meeting between the Maryland Commission and Virginia authorities took place aboard Governor R. M. McLane in the Potomac River to agree on uniform rules to be enforced by both states. That meeting led to a second meeting August 16, 1917 that also included representatives of the United States Bureau of Fisheries and United States Engineers for the Norfolk and Washington districts to continue cooperation and ensure uniform law enforcement on the Potomac.{{cite journal |last=Conservation Commission of Maryland |year=1918 |title=Second Annual report of the Conservation Commission of Maryland — 1917 |pages=7 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015069554924;view=1up;seq=15 |access-date=11 December 2018}}
By 1917 the steamer was part of the Maryland State Fishery Force, successor to the Oyster Police Force, and owned by the Conservation Commission of Maryland.
World War I dual service
The Navy approached the Conservation Commission shortly after the nation's entry into World War I proposing the Commission's boats be used to maintain constant local patrols. The state legislature agreed that the boats and men of the state force would become part of the U.S. Naval Reserve providing they patrol the same districts for fisheries enforcement as well as federal interests with the benefit that patrol time would be increased and the expense for all be paid by the federal government.{{cite journal |last=Conservation Commission of Maryland |year=1918 |title=Second Annual report of the Conservation Commission of Maryland — 1917 |pages=9–10, 20 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.li1ulj;view=1up;seq=11 |access-date=11 December 2018}} The Maryland State Fishery Force boats began operating under a contract in which they were under a free lease to the United States Navy in August 1917, serving as Squadron Number 8 of the 5th Naval District, patrolling their regular areas enforcing state conservation law and federal laws. They were under the command of a Conservation Commission member who was also a Lieutenant in the Navy with all expenses, wages, supplies and repairs paid by the federal government.{{cite journal |last=Conservation Commission of Maryland |year=1919 |title=Third Annual report of the Conservation Commission of Maryland — 1918 |pages=11 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.li1um5;view=1up;seq=25 |access-date=11 December 2018}}
The navy commissioned the ship on 6 August 1917 as USS Governor R. M. McLane assigning the Section Patrol number SP-1328. Assigned to the 5th Naval District, Governor R. M. McLane served as a patrol craft in the Chesapeake Bay for the remainder of World War I. Her cruising grounds included Baltimore Harbor, the Patuxent River, and the Severn River, and Tangier Sound. During November 1918 she was used briefly as a towing boat by Indian Head Naval Proving Ground at Indian Head, Maryland. Governor R. M. McLane was returned to the Conservation Commission on 30 November 1918.
Post war
After the war the commission began modernizing the fleet in general with Governor R. M. McLane taken out of service at the beginning of summer 1919 for engine repairs including a new engine bed. The work was done and the vessel was in service condition when on 3 December she was nearly destroyed by fire while moored at the piers of Canton Lumber Company adjacent to Spedden Shipbuilding in Baltimore where the steamer was to undergo inspection.{{cite journal |last=Conservation Commission of Maryland |year=1920 |title=Fourth Annual report of the Conservation Commission of Maryland — 1919 |pages=11–12 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.li1um5;view=1up;seq=25 |access-date=11 December 2018}} Six other vessels were destroyed, including the {{cvt|155.5|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} U.S. Army passenger and freight steamer Major L'Enfant on which the ship's cook died in the fire.{{cite news |year=1919 |title=2 Wharves, 7 Ships Destroyed by Fire |newspaper=The Washington Times |page=19 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22886292/the_end_of_the_steamer_major_lenfant/ |access-date=11 December 2018 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |date=December 3, 1919 |title=Fire Destroys Ships, Piers at Baltimore |newspaper=Los Angeles Herald |volume=45 |issue=27 |page=B—6 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19191203.2.197&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |access-date=11 December 2018}}{{cite book |year=1918 |title=Fiftieth Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States, Year ended June 30, 1918 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Navigation |page=497 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433023733961;view=1up;seq=511;size=150 |access-date=11 December 2018}}Major L'Enfant was an Army Quartermaster passenger and freight vessel built in 1901 in Philadelphia as Quaker City (ON 20633) then Sieur de Monts of {{GRT|469}} with a complement of five officers and ten men. (see Merchant Vessels of the United States, 1018 & [http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/19thcentury/neafie.htm Neafie & Levy, Philadelphia PA]) The Commission had the vessel surveyed and had plans prepared for rebuilding using the $35,000 in insurance money. To replace Governor R. M. McLane temporarily the Navy loaned the patrol vessel Hiawatha to the state.
Governor R. M. McLane was found to be repairable and was rebuilt by the Spedden Shipbuilding Company within the insurance payment to the state with completion in October and back in commission on 10 November 1920.{{cite journal |last=Conservation Commission of Maryland |year=1921 |title=Fifth Annual report of the Conservation Commission of Maryland — 1920 |pages=27 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015069554924;view=1up;seq=313 |access-date=11 December 2018}} In 1921 the steamer was based in Cambridge, Maryland in the charge of Deputy Commander A. S. Creighton and on 28 March, with the Commission on board, left Baltimore on a tour of inspection of oyster beds suitable for planting oysters, considered essential to maintain the natural beds.{{cite journal |last=Conservation Commission of Maryland |year=1922 |title=Sixth Annual report of the Conservation Commission of Maryland — 1921 |pages=List of Officials, 25–27 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.li1ukc;view=1up;seq=7 |access-date=11 December 2018}} The next year the steamer assisted with creation of new beds by planting oyster shell until withdrawn for other duty after completion of the "Diamond" area off Sharp's Island.{{cite journal |last=Conservation Commission of Maryland |year=1923 |title=Seventh Annual report of the Conservation Commission of Maryland — 1922 |pages=45–46 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015069554924;view=1up;seq=535 |access-date=11 December 2018}}
As late as January 1937 the "State Patrol Steamer Governor R. M. McLane, then of Annapolis, was in operation patrolling and doing inspection work on the Chesapeake.{{cite news |date=January 15, 1937 |title=State Steamer McLane Was In Port On Tuesday |newspaper=The Crisfield Times |url=http://newbrunswick.archivalweb.com/scans/SomersetCountyMD/Crisfield%20Times/M-4616/CT_01_1937_00030.txt |access-date=11 December 2018}} Governor R. M. McLane is listed in the Merchant Vessel Registers in the early 1940s with official number 234375 and signal WOGF with the last entry in the 1945 registry.{{cite book |year=1945 |title=Merchant Vessels of the United States, Year ended June 30, 1945 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Customs |page=39 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435066706920;view=1up;seq=43;size=200 |access-date=13 December 2018}}
Fate
As of February 2003, the hulk of Governor R. M. McLane, the deckhouse gone but deck still visible, rested partially submerged on the harbor bottom next to the piers of the Downtown Sailing Center on the grounds of the Baltimore Museum of Industry at Baltimore, Maryland.
Footnotes
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References
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Other Maryland Fishery Force vessels
Bessie Jones, Buck, Daisy Archer, Dorothy, Frolic, {{ship||Governor R. M. McLane|steamboat|2}}, Julia Hamilton, Helen Baughman, Murray, Music, Nellie Jackson, Nettie, Severn, St. Mary's, and Swan
External links
- [https://www.chesapeakebaymagazine.com/features/2017/10/12/lone-cedar-tree-opposite-shore Lone Cedar Tree Opposite Shore — account of oyster survey (Chesapeake Bay Magazine)]
- [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.li1um5;view=1up;seq=23 Photo of Governor R.M. McLane with SP-1328 visible on bow.]
- [https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/World-War-I.jpg Crew of Governor R. M. McLane during World War I when all officers and men of the State Fisheries Force were enrolled in the U.S. Naval Reserve]
- [https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/sh-civil/civsh-g/gov-mcln.htm Governor R.M. McLane (Maryland Oyster Police Steamer)] (Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images archived at HyperWar)
- [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015069554924;view=1up;seq=290;size=75 Rebuilt Governor R.M. McLane after fire]
- [http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/171328.htm NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Governor R. M. McLane (SP 1328)]
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Category:Maritime history of Maryland
Category:Patrol vessels of the United States Navy
Category:Ships built by Neafie and Levy
Category:World War I patrol vessels of the United States