USS San Francisco (Cruiser # 5, C-5, later CM-2), 1890-1939. Later renamed Yosemite

USS San Francisco, a 4088-ton protected cruiser, was built at San Francisco, California, and commissioned in November 1890. She served in the Pacific until 1893, then steamed to the Atlantic. Operations followed in the North and South Atlantic, and in European waters. During the Spanish-American War, in 1898, San Francisco was stationed off Cuba.

• The first San Francisco (C-5) was a protected cruiser Protected cruisers were a type of naval cruiser of the late 19th century. They were so known because they had only a minimal amount of armor compared to existing "armored" cruisers. In around 1910, when armor plate began to increase in quality and engines became lighter, they were superseded by light and heavy cruisers.
  
   
• Most of their armor was used on the special deck inside the vessel, protecting boilers and steam machines, trapezoid-like in cross-section. Also guns and conning tower could be armored.

copyright © 2007 USS San Francisco Memorial Foundation

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